Five Mice in a Mouse-trap Part 3

So Downy came toddling up, and Nibble lifted him into the cart, and then got in himself, and took the reins and the whip.

"Now, Downy boy, you shall have the best ride that any one ever had. Hi!

my gallant steeds! Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer! Oh, dear!" cried Nibble, "I wish I had eight reindeer like St. Nicholas, instead of only three dogs. But still I can say, 'Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!'" and the young charioteer stood up in the cart and waved the whip round his head, while Downy clapped his hands and shouted with glee.

Yes, that was pride! but the fall also was not wanting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD GRUFF.]

Away went the three dogs, poor old Gruff forced into a lumbering gallop by the pace of the two others, who capered along, and let the big old dog do all the pulling. Round the house they went once and twice, the little cart rocking from side to side in rather an alarming way. Then, as they came round the third time--they saw a cat! Nibble saw it first, and tried like a clever mouse as he is, to turn his gallant steeds'

heads away before they also saw it: but it was too late. "Yap! yap!

yap!" went little Grab; "Woof! woof!" added Grim, struggling to free himself from the harness. Good old Gruff held out bravely for a moment or two; but finally he could not resist.

A mighty "_Bow_, wow WOW!" a leap and a plunge, and then for a moment I could see nothing but a cloud of dust, from which came barks and shrieks which were truly dreadful to hear. In a moment, however, the cart luckily was caught between two bushes, and there it stuck, while the dogs rushed to the foot of the nearest apple-tree, to leap and howl there in vain excitement, while the peaceful cat smiled at them in safety from the topmost bough.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

At the moment the explosion took place, two people came upon the scene, one from the barn and one from the house. They were Uncle Jack and Mrs.

Posset. The latter had happened to look out of the window just as the grand turn-out came round for the third time, and she had flown down stairs to rescue her Downy, but arrived only in time to s.n.a.t.c.h him from the ruins of the cart, very much frightened and covered with dust, and what was worse with blood, which flowed from a cut in his forehead. As for Uncle Jack, he had been very busy in the barn arranging matters with John and had supposed that Downy was quite safe with Nibble and Gruff to look after him.

"If you please, sir," cried Mrs. Posset in an angry tone, "what is to be done with Nibble? this blessed child's life is not safe with him for an instant, so it isn't! putting three dogs tantrum (Mrs. Posset meant tandem, but she was too much vexed to think about her words,) with an innocent baby behind them and the garden as full of cats as his head is of mischief!" and the good woman's breath fairly failed her, from haste and vexation combined. Uncle Jack looked very grave as he came up.

"How did this happen, Nibble?" he asked. "Mrs. Posset, if you will take Downy into the house and bathe his forehead, I will come in and find some court-plaster to put on that cut. Now my boy," he added, turning to Nibble, "tell me all about this!"

Nibble hung his head and looked very much ashamed.

"I--I did have them tandem," he said. "I never thought of cats, and Downy likes to ride so much!"

"I am very sorry, Nibble!" said Uncle Jack, "I certainly thought I could trust you to take care of your little brother for ten minutes. There are plenty of ways of amusing a little child without putting him in danger of his life; for Downy might have been very much hurt, perhaps even killed, and then you would never have forgiven yourself. Remember, my boy, that there is a great difference between three years and eight years, and that what may be harmless for you may be very dangerous for your little brother."

"Indeed, Uncle, I am very sorry!" said Nibble earnestly; "and I will try to be more careful. And--and what shall I do now, Uncle? there isn't any punishment tree here, is there?"

This question puzzled me at the time, but I found out afterwards that in the place where they had lived before, there was one special tree into which Nibble always had to climb when he had been naughty, and where he had spent many hours of penance.

Uncle Jack smiled kindly on the boy--I mean the mouse--and said "I have not found one yet, dear child! but I think that if you were to spend the rest of the morning in the house, and try to console Downy for his b.u.mps and bruises, it would be a very good thing."

Nibble looked grave at this. He would have preferred sitting in a tree, and hearing the birds sing, and wondering where their nests might be, and how many eggs there might be in them, to spending the lovely, sunny morning in the house. But he went in without a word, remembering that Downy also had to stay in the house through his carelessness, and with aches and pains which he somehow had escaped.

He found the baby mouse curled up on the sofa in the library, looking very forlorn, with a handkerchief tied round his head. Mrs. Posset was sitting beside him, reading to him, for though Downy was a very little boy, he was very fond of stories. His eyes brightened when he saw Nibble. "Oh! Nibby!" he cried. "Did dey catf de cat?"

"Indeed, I hope not!" said Mrs. Posset. "It is a strange thing in the nature of boys, that they like to see cats tormented."

"But I don't like to see them hurt, Mrs. Posset!" said Nibble. "It _is_ fun to see them run, but the dogs never catch them, so no harm is done.

And it is good for the cats to have a little exercise, I am sure, for they are lazy creatures."

"Humph!" said Mrs. Posset. "Well, I am reading to Downy now, Master Nibble, so--"

"Wouldn't you like me to take the book, Mrs. Posset?" asked Nibble. "I must stay in the house till dinner, and I could read to Downy."

"Oh! yes, Nibby, read!" cried Downy.

"Very well, Master Nibble, and that is just what will please me, for I have not my spectacles by me, and the print troubles my eyes. Besides, the child's clothes are torn to shrivers, (this was a pet word of Mrs.

Posset's, and I think she must have invented it herself,) and I must attend to them at once."

So Mrs. Posset, with an approving nod, trotted off to the nursery, and Nibble sat down by the sofa.

"What shall I read, Downy boy?" he asked.

"Wead Pinfkin!" said Downy very decidedly.

"'Princekin,' eh?" said Nibble, "Well, here it is, so listen! And perhaps, if you were to shut your eyes, Downy, you might see some of the pretty things that Princekin saw."

So Nibble opened the book, from which Mrs. Posset had been reading, and read this little rhyme:

_PRINCEKIN._

"Princekin sits on his nursery throne, Prettiest Princekin, all alone, Sighing a sigh, and moaning a moan, 'Oh--dear--_me!_ oh!'

'Princekin beautiful, Princekin dear, Tell us your troubles, and do not fear!'

'n.o.body come, and n.o.body here, n.o.body p'ay wiz me, oh!'

"'What! no little boys, and no little girls, To play with Princekin, pearl of pearls?

Then lift your head, with its crown of curls, And we'll do better without, oh!

Open the window and call the flowers Birds and beasts from their trees and bowers, To come and play with this Prince of ours, And make him with laughter shout, oh!'

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Princekin raises his sapphire eyes, Diamond tear-drop quickly dries, Stares and stares in such great surprise He doesn't know what to do, oh!

In at the window, low and high, Hundreds of creatures creep and fly, Vines and flowerets clambering by, Of every shape and hue, oh!

"Doves are lighting on Princekin's knee, Close in his curls hums a honey bee, Roses are climbing around his wee Sweet hands, for to cling and kiss, oh!

Beetles hover on gauzy wing, Blue-bells, lily-bells, chime and ring, Bull-frogs whistle and robins sing, And see, what an owl is this, oh!

"Squirrel is whispering in his ear, 'Princekin beautiful, Princekin dear, Leave this stupid close nursery here, Come to the woods with me, oh!'

Daisy is murmuring at his feet, 'Princekin lovely, and Princekin sweet, Come live with us, 'mid the corn and wheat, Out in the field so free, oh!'

"Round they flutter, and round they dance, Wheel and hover and creep and prance, Bird, beast, blossom, all bent on the chance Of winning the pearl of boys, oh!

Clinging and kissing o'er and o'er, Singing, chattering, more and more,-- But _oh!_--who slammed the nursery door, And made such a dreadful noise, oh!

"Princekin sits on his nursery throne, Prettiest Princekin, all alone.

Sighing a sigh and moaning a moan, 'Oh--dear--_me_, oh!

Had such a bootiful, bootiful p'ay!

No! I _not_ been as'eep, I say!

And now dem's everyone gone away, n.o.body left but me, oh!'"

Then Nibble stopped reading, and closed the book softly, for Downy was just as fast asleep as Princekin had been.

"That is always the way!" he said to himself. "I never saw a child sleep so much in the daytime. In fact, there is no use in reading to him, unless you want him to go to sleep. But perhaps," he added "that is just what Mrs. Posset did want, and it is the best thing to do when one cannot go out of doors. Heigh ho! how pleasant it is out there! I wonder where Brighteyes is! She might come in and stay with me, I think, if she knows I am in the house." And Nibble sat down by the window, and looked mournfully out into the garden.