The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse | Page 9

his ears, Dickie Deer Mouse promptly hid himself in any good place that was handy.
So matters went along for some time. And Dickie actually began to think that perhaps he didn't need to be so careful, and that maybe Simon Screecher was not so bad as people said.
However, he jumped almost out of his skin one night, when he heard a wailing whistle in a tree right over his head. And when he came down upon all-fours again he couldn't see a single place to hide.
So he stood stock still, hardly daring to breathe.
To Dickie's dismay, a mocking laugh rang out. And somebody said:
"I see you!"
It was Simon Screecher himself that spoke.
Dickie Deer Mouse looked up and spied him, sitting on a low limb. He was not so big as Dickie had supposed. But it was certainly Simon. Dickie knew him, beyond a doubt, by his ear-tufts, which stuck up from his head like horns.
"What made you jump when I whistled?" Simon Screecher asked him.
"I don't know," Dickie answered, "unless it was you."
Simon Screecher chuckled.
"You're a bright young chap," he observed. "But that's not surprising, for I notice that you belong to the Deer Mouse family, and everybody's aware that they are one of the brightest families in Pleasant Valley--what are left of them."
These last words made Dickie Deer Mouse more uneasy than ever. But he made up his mind not to let Simon Screecher know that he was worried.
"I have a great many relations," he declared stoutly. "Ours is a big family."
"Yes--but not nearly so big as it was when I first came to this neighborhood to live," Simon told him with a sly smile.
He had hardly finished that remark when a loud wha-wha, whoo-ah came from a hemlock not far away. And the next moment Simon's cousin Solomon Owl sailed through the moonlight and alighted near him.
Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help thinking that it was a great night for the Owl family. And he was surprised to notice that Simon Screecher did not act overjoyed at seeing his cousin.
"It's a pleasant night," said Solomon Owl in his deep, hollow voice.
Simon Screecher replied somewhat sourly that he supposed it was. And he changed his seat, so that he might keep his eyes on both his cousin and Dickie Deer Mouse at the same time.
But Solomon Owl made matters very hard for Simon. Simon had no sooner seated himself comfortably when Solomon Owl moved to a perch behind him.
Simon Screecher looked almost crosseyed, as he tried to watch everything that happened. And he looked so fretful that for a moment Dickie Deer Mouse actually forgot his fear and laughed aloud. [Illustration]

[Illustration]
XIII
THE FEATHERS FLY
"I'm glad to see you," Solomon Owl told his cousin Simon Screecher, while Dickie Deer Mouse stood stock still on the ground beneath the tree where the two cousins were sitting. "I'm glad to see you. And I hope you're enjoying good health."
"I'm well enough," Simon Screecher grunted.
"Do you find plenty to eat nowadays?" Solomon asked him.
Simon Screecher admitted that he was not starving.
"Ah!" Solomon exclaimed. "Then you can have no objection to sharing a specially nice tidbit with your own cousin."
Dickie Deer Mouse shivered. But he did not dare move, with one of Simon Screecher's great, glassy eyes staring straight at him. And there was something else that did not help to put him at his ease: Solomon Owl seemed to be watching him likewise!
"Haven't you dined to-night?" Simon Screecher inquired in a testy tone.
"Yes!" Solomon admitted. "But I haven't had my dessert yet.... What are you looking at so closely, Cousin Simon, down there on the ground?"
An angry light came into Simon Screecher's eyes.
"Can't I look where I please?" he snapped.
And he changed his seat again, so that he might get a better view of Dickie and Solomon at the same time.
Solomon Owl promptly moved to another limb behind Simon, and slightly higher.
And Dickie Deer Mouse took heart when Simon Screecher began to make a queer sound by opening his beak and shutting it with a snap, as if he would like to nip somebody.
Dickie knew that Simon Screecher was in a terrible rage. And unless his threatening actions scared Solomon Owl away, Dickie thought there was likely to be a cousinly fight.
He was pleased to notice that Solomon Owl showed no sign of dismay. There was really no reason why he should. He was much bigger than his peppery cousin. And he looked at Simon in a calm and unruffled fashion that seemed to make that quarrelsome fellow angrier than ever.
"What's the matter?" Solomon Owl asked Simon Screecher. "If you had any teeth I'd think they were chattering.... Are you having a chill?"
Simon made no answer.
"Maybe you're afraid of something," Solomon Owl suggested. "Can it be that young Deer Mouse down there on the ground?"