The Tale of Master Meadow Mouse Part 6

Master Meadow Mouse tried to go to sleep again.

"I wish Fatty c.o.o.n wouldn't make so much noise," said Master Meadow Mouse, grumbling a little because he was very drowsy and didn't like to be disturbed.

"There!" he exclaimed after a few moments. "He's gone, thank goodness!"

But Fatty c.o.o.n had only carried his ear of corn to Broad Brook, to wash it before he gobbled the kernels. He was very particular to wash almost everything he ate. But that was about the only way in which he was fussy. There was nothing, almost, that he wouldn't bolt greedily.

After he had devoured the first ear of corn, Fatty c.o.o.n went back and pulled another off the same shock.

Again he roused Master Meadow Mouse from his slumbers.

"He's at it again!" Master Meadow Mouse complained. "I wish he'd go to some other shock."

The third time that Fatty c.o.o.n wrenched an ear of corn from the shock where Master Meadow Mouse lived he paused and c.o.c.ked an ear towards the top of the shock.

"Was that a squeak?" he asked himself. And then he sniffed. "Ha!" he cried. "Do I smell a Meadow Mouse?"

Fatty c.o.o.n was not mistaken. When he rustled the dried cornstalks the third time, Master Meadow Mouse had cried right out in his sleep. And he waked up just soon enough to hear Fatty c.o.o.n's remarks.

"Maybe you do smell a Meadow Mouse," he replied under his breath, so Fatty c.o.o.n couldn't hear him. "But it won't do you any good; for I'm not coming out of my castle until you go away."

It soon appeared that Fatty c.o.o.n did not intend to leave. For Fatty began to pull at the cornstalks with his claws. Although Farmer Green had bound the stalks together tightly, one by one Fatty tore them loose and let them fall upon the ground.

And inside the shock Master Meadow Mouse suddenly started up in alarm.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

14

The Masked Bandit

IT was no wonder that Master Meadow Mouse was startled. He cowered inside his nest in the top of the shock of corn. The whole shock shook.

There was a terrible rustle of dry leaves as Fatty c.o.o.n tore away stalk after stalk.

"Old Mr. Crow never did this!" Master Meadow Mouse stammered. "He never disturbed my rest. But this awful Fatty c.o.o.n means to catch me. And I don't know what to do."

Meanwhile Fatty c.o.o.n was muttering horribly to himself as he worked.

"This fellow must be fat," he grunted, as he wrenched at a stubborn stalk with claws and teeth. "With all this corn to feast on he must be in fine trim. Mm! He ought to be just right to top off a good meal of corn."

"My goodness!" Master Meadow Mouse gasped. "How annoying! He intends to eat me!"

For a few moments Master Meadow Mouse wondered whether he ought to fight or run. "I wish," he thought, "that I'd brought my old sign with me when I moved to this new home. If I had hung it outside my door Fatty c.o.o.n wouldn't have bothered me. When he read that notice, 'Gone to lunch.

Back To-morrow,' he would have shuffled off about his business." But idle thoughts and wishes were of no use at a time like that. Master Meadow Mouse soon realized that he must act--and act quickly.

"Maybe I'll bite his nose," he said to himself. "But I want to peep at him first."

So Master Meadow Mouse left his nest and crept a short distance until he could peer out from a c.h.i.n.k between two cornstalks. In the moonlight he had a fine view of Fatty c.o.o.n. And as he stared at the intruder Meadow Mouse shuddered.

"No!" he exclaimed. "No! I never could fight him. I wouldn't dare bite his nose. He's far, far too big for me to tackle."

There was no denying that Fatty c.o.o.n looked both huge and dangerous.

Across his face was a black mask which only added to his horrid appearance. And through the mask his eyes shone green and greedy right into the frightened ones of Master Meadow Mouse.

One good look was enough for Master Meadow Mouse. He drew back hurriedly. Through his mind there flashed a saying of his mother's that he had not thought of for a long time: "He that fights and runs away will live to fight another day."

"I'll run first," Master Meadow Mouse decided. "Then perhaps I shan't have to fight at all."

Then he stole out of the shock of corn, on the opposite side. And when Fatty c.o.o.n pawed his way through to the nest he found it empty.

He gave a wail of anger and dismay.

"He's gone! The Meadow Mouse has gone!" Fatty bawled. "And I'll warrant he was a fat one, too. It's always the fattest ones that get away. And n.o.body can deny that this one was living high."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

15

The Flood

"THIS means another move for me," said Master Meadow Mouse. Fatty c.o.o.n had broken into the house in the shock of corn where Master Meadow Mouse had been living. And Master Meadow Mouse had fled.

Somehow he felt that a change of scene would be good for him. Although he had dwelt but a short time in the cornfield, he had no longer any desire to stay there. For Fatty c.o.o.n had given him a great fright. There was no denying that.

"It seems as if I were always moving," Master Meadow Mouse mused. "It's lucky for me the world is wide. Thank goodness there's plenty of places left where I can go. I've tried the meadow, Farmer Green's woodpile, the tangle beside the pasture fence and the cornfield. And now--now let me see! I believe I'll settle along Black Creek, under the bank."

He was talking with Long Bill Wren, who had a nest in a marshy spot near the creek.

"Oh, don't make yourself a home under the bank!" Long Bill cried. "The fall rains will come soon. The creek is sure to rise. And then where will you be?"

"I'll be in the water, I suppose," Master Meadow Mouse answered.

"Correct!" said Long Bill Wren. "And you want to avoid that. Maybe you've noticed that my wife and I built our nest off the ground. We fasten it to the reeds so we'll be dry, no matter if there's a freshet in midsummer."

"Ah!" Master Meadow Mouse exclaimed with a smile. "I see you don't like water as much as I do. The fall rains won't trouble me. If the creek rises as high as my house it will be all the more fun."

Long Bill Wren gave him an odd look.