The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse | Page 7

Dickie Deer Mouse had lost so much sleep--through being disturbed by Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay--that when night came he kept right on sleeping. Yes! Instead of joining his friends in a mad scamper through the woods in the moonlight, Dickie Deer Mouse slept on and on and on, until--something shook the small tree where he lived and made it sway as if an earthquake had come.
Dickie Deer Mouse roused himself with a start. His sharp ears caught a scratching sound. And sticking his head through his doorway, he looked out.
One quick glance told him what was happening. That pudgy rascal, Fatty Coon, was climbing the tree! And every moment brought him nearer and nearer to Dickie's house.
Dickie's big, black eyes bulged more than ever as he whisked out of his house and scampered to the top of the tree, where the branches were so small that Fatty Coon could never follow him.
"Stop!" Fatty Coon cried. "Mr. Crow told me where I could find you. And I want to have a word with you."
"What sort of word?" Dickie Deer Mouse inquired.
"It's about the cornfield," Fatty Coon explained.
"I haven't been near that place since you last saw me there," Dickie declared.
"I know you haven't," Fatty told him. "That's just why I want to have a word with you. I'm in a peck of trouble. And I want you to help me."
Dickie Deer Mouse could scarcely believe it. But being a very polite young gentleman, he told Fatty that he would be glad to do anything in his power to assist him--or at least, anything except to come down out of the top of the tree.
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X
A BIT OF ADVICE
"It's like this," Fatty Coon said, puffing a bit--on account of his climb--as he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse. "Old Mr. Crow says that Farmer Green is going to sick old dog Spot on me if I don't keep out of the cornfield."
"Well, I should say it was very kind of Mr. Crow to tell you," Dickie remarked.
Fatty Coon was not so sure of that.
"He'd like to have the cornfield to himself," he told Dickie. "He'd like nothing better than to keep me out of it. And if old dog Spot is coming there after me, I certainly don't want to go near the place again."
"Then I'd stay away, if I were you," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.
"Ah! That's just the trouble!" Fatty Coon cried. "I can't! I'm too fond of corn. And that's why I've come here to have a word with you," he went on. "I've noticed that you haven't set foot in the cornfield since I spoke to you over there in the middle of the day. And I want you to tell me how you manage to stay away."
"Something seems to pull me right away from it," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.
Fatty Coon groaned.
"Something seems to pull me towards the corn!" he wailed.
Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
"If there was only something else that you liked better than green corn," he said, "perhaps it would help you to keep away from this new danger."
"But there isn't!" Fatty Coon exclaimed.
"Have you ever tried horns?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked him.
Fatty Coon looked puzzled.
"What kind?" he asked his small friend.
"Deer's!" Dickie explained. "You know they drop them in the woods sometimes. I've had many a meal off deer's horns. And I can say truthfully that there's nothing quite like them when you're hungry."
Fatty Coon actually began to look hopeful.
"I'm always hungry," he announced. "And perhaps if I could get a taste of deer's horns they would keep my mind off the cornfield. Where did you say I could find some?"
"I didn't say," Dickie Deer Mouse reminded him; "but I don't object to telling you where to look. They're generally to be found in the woods, near the foot of a tree."
Fatty Coon's face brightened at once.
"Then it ought to be easy for me to get a taste of some," he cried. And he began to crawl down the tree even as he spoke.
He did not thank Dickie Deer Mouse for his help. But that was like Fatty. Always having his mind on eatables, he was more than likely to forget to be polite.
Little Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he watched the actions of his late caller. The instant Fatty Coon reached the ground he began to look under the trees--first one and then another.
"Don't miss a single tree!" Dickie called to him.
"Don't worry!" Fatty Coon replied. "I'm going to keep looking until I find some deer's horns. And I hope I'll like 'em when I find 'em, for I'm terribly hungry right now."
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XI
A SEARCH IN VAIN
It was true that Dickie Deer Mouse and all his relations feasted on the horns shed by the deer. But of course they didn't