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Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse

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89 <h2>XVII</h2><h3>A SLIGHT MISTAKE</h3> Scarcely had Dickie Deer Mouse plunged into the woods when he met Fatty Coon coming in the opposite direction. "Hullo!" Fatty said, looking up at Dickie, who had scrambled into a tree as soon as he caught sight of Fatty's plump form. "What have you been doing in Farmer Green's pasture! I thought you always stayed in the woods—unless you happened to go to the cornfield." "I've been looking for a winter home," Dickie explained. "And I've just found the finest one you ever saw." "Where is it!" Fatty asked him. "I90 might want to pay you a call some night—when I had nothing else to do." Dickie Deer Mouse was in such a cheerful mood that almost anything Fatty Coon might have said would have pleased him. "My new house is just beyond the fence," Dickie explained. "But I'm afraid you can't very well visit me there," he added with a smile. "Why not?" Fatty Coon inquired. "I'm as good a climber as anybody. I can climb the tallest tree you ever saw, without feeling dizzy. But of course I'm a bit heavier than you are. And if you've gone and picked out a nest that's a long way above the ground, among the smallest branches, it might not be safe for me to go all the way up to it." Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile once more.91 <div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/opp-p090.png' alt='Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox' title='' width = '335' height = '487'/> Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox</div> "My new home isn't as high as I am right now," he told Fatty Coon. Fatty grunted. "Then I'll certainly come to see you," he said, "when time hangs heavily on my hands." "My new house isn't as high as you are right now," Dickie remarked. And at that Fatty Coon looked puzzled. His mouth fell open; and for a few moments he stared at his small friend without saying a word. "You must be mistaken," he replied at last. "I'm standing on the ground. And I never saw a last year's bird's nest that was lower than that." "I shall have to explain," said Dickie, "that my new home is much finer than my old one. Now, you may not believe it, but it has a front hall that's a hundred times as long as your tail."92 Fatty Coon looked around at his ringed tail, with its black tip; and then he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse again. "You must be mistaken!" he cried. "I'll have to take my tail to your house and measure your front hall myself before I'll believe that." "You can't measure my hall!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed. "Who's going to stop me?" Fatty Coon growled. He was used to having his own way. And it always made him angry when anybody tried to upset his plans. "I'm going to your house in the pasture now; and I'll soon show you that you're mistaken about your front hall.... You come with me and lead the way, young fellow!" But Dickie Deer Mouse said he was so hungry that he couldn't go back just then.93 "I'm headed for the big beech tree to see if I can find a few nuts," he announced. At the mention of food Fatty Coon's face took on a different look. "I'm hungry myself," he said, as if he had just remembered something. "I was on my way to Farmer Green's corn house when I met you. And I really ought to get there before the moon comes up. So if you'll tell me where your house is I'll stop there when I come back." "My new home——" Dickie Deer Mouse informed him with an air of great pride——"my new home is in the burrow where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck used to live. The front door is under the tree that stands on the knoll just beyond the fence. But you can never get inside it, because you're altogether too fat."94 The stout person on the ground knew that he spoke the truth. And without saying another word he turned about and disappeared in the direction of the farm buildings. "Don't forget to take your tail with you!" Dickie Deer Mouse called to him, just before he was out of sight. "You might want to measure the corn house." But Fatty Coon did not trouble himself to answer. <div class='figcenter' style='width: 338px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/p094.png' alt='' title='' width = '338' height = '223'/> </div> <hr class='major' /> <div class='figcenter' style='width: 343px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> <ANTIMG src='images/p095.png' alt='' title='' width = '343' height = '129'/> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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