The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse | Page 2

the branches, Dickie scampered through
the woods with his friends and had the gayest of times.
No one would have thought that he had a care in the world.
[Illustration]

[Illustration]
II

HUNTING A HOME
Warm weather was at hand. And Dickie Deer Mouse gave up frolicking
with his friends for a time, because he needed to find a pleasant place in
which to spend the summer.
He had his eye on a nest high in the top of a tall elm, where a certain
black rascal known as old Mr. Crow had lived for a long while.
Now, Dickie had heard a bit of gossip, to the effect that the old
gentleman had moved to another tree nearer to Farmer Green's
cornfield. So Dickie wanted to lose no time. He was afraid that if he
waited, some brisk member of the Squirrel family would settle himself
in Mr. Crow's old home.
Without telling anybody what was in his head, Dickie Deer Mouse set
forth one pleasant, warm night in the direction of the great elm, where
he hoped to pass a number of delightful months.
It was some distance to the tall tree. But the night was fine, and Dickie
enjoyed his journey, though once he stopped and shivered when he
heard the wailing whistle of a screech owl.
"That's Simon Screecher!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed under his
breath. "I know his voice. And I hope he won't come this way!"
Dickie halted for a few minutes, near an old oak with spreading roots,
under which he intended to hide in case Simon Screecher should
suddenly appear.
But he soon decided that Simon was headed for another part of the
woods, for his quavering cry grew fainter and fainter. So Dickie
promptly forgot his fright and scampered on again faster than before, to
make up the time he had lost.
Though he travelled through the flickering shadows like a brown and
white streak, he did not pant the least bit when he reached old Mr.
Crow's elm. He did not need to pause at the foot of the tree to get his

breath, but scurried up it as if climbing was one of the easiest things he
did.
Mr. Crow's big nest was so far from the ground that many people
would not have cared to visit it except with the help of an elevator. But
Dickie Deer Mouse never stopped to think of such a thing. Of course it
would have done him no good, anyway, to wish for an elevator, for
there was none in all Pleasant Valley. In fact, even Johnnie Green
himself had only heard of--and never seen--one.
It took Dickie Deer Mouse only a few moments to reach the top of the
tall elm, where Mr. Crow's bulky nest, built of sticks and lined with
grass and moss, rested in a crotch formed by three branches.
Dickie had never before been so close to Mr. Crow's old home. And
now he stood still and looked at it with great interest. It was ever so
much bigger than he had supposed, and exactly the sort of
dwelling--cool and airy--that he had hoped to find for his summer
home.
"I don't see what sort of house the old gentleman can want that would
be better than this," Dickie Deer Mouse remarked to himself. "But it is
a long way from the cornfield, to be sure." And then he climbed
quickly up the side of the nest and whisked down inside it.
The next moment a great commotion frightened him nearly out of his
wits. A deafening squawking smote Dickie Deer Mouse's big ears. And
something struck him a number of blows that knocked his breath quite
out of him.
[Illustration]

[Illustration]
III
A STARTLED SLEEPER

Of course Dickie Deer Mouse ought not to have been so ready to
believe that stray bit of gossip about Mr. Crow. It is true that the old
black scamp had talked about moving to a new place nearer Farmer
Green's cornfield. But his plan had gone no further than that.
He was sound asleep in his bed when Dickie Deer Mouse jumped down
beside him. And when Mr. Crow suddenly waked up it would be very
hard to say which of the two was the more startled.
For a few moments Mr. Crow screamed loudly for help. And he
flapped and floundered about as if he didn't know which way to turn,
nor what to do.
During the uproar Dickie Deer Mouse managed to slip out of Mr.
Crow's house without being seen. But he was too polite to run away.
Instead of hurrying off to escape a scolding from Mr. Crow he clung to
a near-by branch and called as loudly as he could:
"Don't be alarmed, sir! There's no