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Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse

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58 <h2>XI</h2><h3>A SEARCH IN VAIN</h3> 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 find horns in the woods every day. Only at a certain season of the year did the deer drop them. And since that time was now past, and the Deer Mouse family had scoured the woods until they found—and devoured—them all, it is clear that Fatty Coon had started out on a fruitless hunt. But he didn't know that, even if Dickie Deer Mouse did. And that was the reason why Dickie smiled as he watched59 Fatty Coon dodging about among the trees, looking for deer's horns where there couldn't possibly be any. "It's the finest thing that could happen to Fatty," Dickie Deer Mouse thought. "While he's hunting for horns he can't go to the cornfield. And so long as he stays away from the cornfield, old dog Spot can't catch him there." And then Dickie set forth to find his friends and enjoy a romp in the moonlight. Dawn found him creeping into his house once more. And after what had happened during the night it was not strange that he should dream about Fatty Coon. It was not a pleasant dream. For some reason or other Fatty Coon seemed to be angry with him, and was shouting in a terrible, deep voice, "Where's Dickie60 Deer Mouse? Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?" And then Dickie awoke, all a-shiver. But of course he felt better at once, for he knew that it was only a dream. And he stretched himself, and buried his head in his bed of cat-tail down, because the daylight was trickling in through his doorway. "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?" Again that question startled him, though he was wide awake, and couldn't be dreaming. The next instant Dickie's tree began to quiver. Fatty Coon was climbing up it! And Dickie Deer Mouse jumped out of bed in a hurry and slipped out of his door. Looking down, he could see that Fatty Coon was in something quite like a rage.61 "What's the matter?" Dickie called to him. Fatty could do nothing but glare and growl at him. "Have you had your breakfast?" Dickie asked him. Fatty shook his head. "No!" he roared. "I haven't had a morsel to eat since I last saw you. I've been hunting for horns all this time. And I've come back to tell you that I don't like your advice. If I followed it much longer there's no doubt that I'd starve to death." "It has kept you out of the cornfield, hasn't it?" Dickie inquired. "Yes!" Fatty admitted. "But it won't much longer. I'm on my way to the cornfield now." He looked at Dickie and frowned, as if to say, "Just try to stop me!"62 "Aren't you afraid to go there?" Dickie asked him. Fatty Coon sniffed. "That story about old dog Spot was nothing but a trick," he declared. "It was just a trick of old Mr. Crow's. He wants all the corn himself." "Don't you think, then, that you and I ought to eat all the corn we can?" Dickie inquired. "I certainly do!" Fatty Coon replied. "Let's hurry over now and get some!" Dickie Deer Mouse was only too glad to accept the invitation. And he waited politely until Fatty had reached the ground, before going down himself. Old Mr. Crow saw them the moment they entered the cornfield. And he hurried up to them with a most important air and advised them both that they "had come to a dangerous place."63 <div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/opp-p062.png' alt='"Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"' title='' width = '334' height = '484'/> "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"</div> Fatty Coon paid no attention to the old gentleman. But Dickie Deer Mouse thanked Mr. Crow and told him that after he had had all the corn he wanted he was going back to the woods. Noticing that the old gentleman seemed peevish about something, Dickie said to him: "There ought to be enough for all." But still Mr. Crow looked glum. "There's enough for them that don't care for much else," he muttered. "But we can't feed the whole world on this corn, you know.... How would you like it if I took to eating deer's horns—when they're in season, of course?" "You can have all the deer's horns you want," Fatty Coon remarked thickly—for already his mouth was full. And being very polite, Dickie Deer64 Mouse said the same thing; though of course he waited until he could speak distinctly. <div class='figcenter' style='width: 325px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/p064.png' alt='' title='' width = '325' height = '328'/> </div> <hr class='major' /> <div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/p065.png' alt='' title='' width = '335' height = '156'/> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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