CHAPTER IV
FUZZ AND BUZZ SAVE MISS PATTY GREY-FUR
SO they all three, for the house-mouse came too, ran up the inside of the pipe and knocked at Miss Patty Grey-Fur's door.
"Who's there?" she said in a very cross voice.
"Fuzz and Buzz," her nephew and niece said together.
"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said. "Haven't you gone home yet? Go away. I am not going to give you any of my corn, so you need not think that I am!"
But when Fuzz told her of the meeting that had just been held down in the yard, she opened her door at once and let them all three in. Her face was quite pale with fright.
"You may have as much corn as ever you like, all of you," she said. "You have saved my life. I am so fond of toasted cheese, that if I had smelt it I am sure I should have darted outside, and then they could easily have pushed me down from the roof. I wonder how any mouse could think of being so unkind to another mouse!"
But none of Miss Patty Grey-Fur's guests answered. For their three mouths were so full of corn that they could not speak.
They all thought that the barn was quite one of the nicest places they had ever seen in all their lives. It was filled with corn from top to bottom, and there was enough in it, so at least Fuzz thought, to feed hundreds of mice for hundreds of years. And the little thin house-mouse ate more than either Fuzz or Buzz, for though they had been hungry he had been almost starving.
By and by a knock came at the door, and a smell of toasted cheese stole through the barn.
But though the mice outside, and the sparrows and the pigeons and the two barn-door fowls, waited and waited, no Miss Patty Grey-Fur came darting out to snatch the nice titbit. Her door remained firmly closed, and by and by the birds flew away, and Miss Patty Grey-Fur and her three guests curled themselves up in a warm corner and went to sleep.
But though the birds had flown away and the two fowls had gone to roost, the five mice who had climbed up on to the roof did not dare to go down into the yard again. For the big mouse had told Rags, that if he would wait at the bottom of the pipe he would throw down fat Miss Patty Grey-Fur to him; and so Rags had left his warm kennel, and had sat down in the snow beside the water-pipe, waiting for Miss Patty Grey-Fur to fall down into his mouth.
When the time passed and she did not come he grew very angry, and as in the bright moonlight he could see the five mice sitting up in the gutter that ran round the roof, he made up his mind to wait until they came down, and to eat them instead of Miss Patty Grey-Fur.
So, as the five mice could see him waiting down below, and could guess very well why he was waiting, it was no wonder that they did not dare to go down into the yard. And they passed a very cold and very unhappy night in the gutter.
In the morning Rags called to his friend the cat, who had just come out of the cottage, and showed her where the five mice were sitting in a row. Puss said that while two or three of them would make a very dainty breakfast for her she would throw the others down to him. Then she began to climb up the water-pipe.
The five mice were very much frightened indeed, and they knocked at Miss Patty Grey-Fur's door and begged her to let them in before the cat caught them.
Whether Miss Patty Grey-Fur would have forgiven them and let them in will never be known, for she was sleeping so soundly that she did not hear them tapping.
But Fuzz, who had been awake for some time, heard the noise they were making outside, and he opened the door and let them in. And just in time too, for as the tail of the fifth mouse whisked into the hole the cat came round the corner.
She was very cross when she saw that neither she nor Rags was going to have any of those five mice for breakfast.
As for the mice, they were trembling so much at the narrow escape they had had, that it was some time before they could thank Fuzz and Buzz for having let them in.
Then they all ran away from the door and right down into the middle of the barn, for the cat had put her paw through the hole and was trying to catch them. But when she found that her claws touched nothing but the air, she climbed down from the roof and began to scold Rags for having sent her on a wild-goose chase. Though why she should call the five mice wild geese she did not even know herself. While she was scolding Rags the five mice were eating a very nice breakfast indeed, and their poor little half-frozen bodies were gradually getting warm again in the snug, cosy barn.
Miss Patty Grey-Fur had quite forgiven them for the plot they had hatched against her, and when she saw how hungry and how cold they were, she became very sorry that she had not let them in before. She saw now how greedy and selfish she had been, and she was very much ashamed of herself. She made up her mind never again to be so greedy, but to let every mouse in the yard come into the barn and share the good corn in it.
But Fuzz and Buzz had not forgotten the poor half-frozen-looking sparrows and pigeons who had been at the meeting the night before, and they begged their aunt to allow them to put out some breakfast for the birds too.
"Why, of course," said Miss Patty Grey-Fur, who wanted now to be as good and kind as she had before been bad and selfish. "I am sorry that my front-door is too small for them to come inside, but we will carry some corn out to the gutter."
As there were altogether nine mice in the barn, and as they all worked with a will, there was soon quite a little pile of corn in the gutter. The birds were not very long in finding out the feast that had been got ready for them, and they flew down on to the roof and made a very good meal indeed.
"And now," said Fuzz when all the birds had had as much as ever they could eat, "we ought to be going home again." But he looked with a little shiver out on to the white world that lay round the barn. "And we shall have to walk all the way, you know, Buzz," he said, "for the stream won't take us back again, as it is going the wrong way."
"No, you shall not walk," cooed a pretty gray pigeon, who was still perched on the edge of the gutter. "I will carry you both as far as the wood. So get as much corn as you can and we will start at once, for I should like to be back before it gets dark."
Then the gray pigeon flew down into the yard, and picked up in his beak a paper bag which was lying in the snow. It had once held sweets, but now it was empty, and had been thrown away by one of the children.
"Look," he said, "this will do to hold your corn. Now fill it as full as you can." So, helped by Miss Patty Grey-Fur and by the house-mouse and by the five other mice, Fuzz and Buzz filled the bag to the top, and then they dragged it out to the gutter, where the pigeon was waiting for them with an end of tallow-candle in his beak.
"You mice are fond of candles, aren't you?" he said; "so you had better take this too. I found it on a window-sill of the cottage."
Now field-mice do not eat tallow-candles, at least not often, but Fuzz remembered that the water-rat had said how fond he was of them, so he opened the bag and popped the end in on the top of the corn.
"If we meet that nice water-rat again," he said to Buzz, "we will give it to him."
Then as they were quite ready to set off on their journey home they said good-bye to their aunt, and to all the other mice, and having laid the bag of corn carefully on the back of the pigeon, they climbed on to it themselves.
"Hold tight!" said the pigeon, and then he spread his wings and flew up in the air. Sailing down the stream had been nice, but flying through the air nestled among the soft warm feathers of a pigeon was still nicer, and Fuzz and Buzz were quite sorry when they reached the edge of the wood, and the pigeon dropped gently down until he stood on the ground.
They were in the middle of thanking him for having carried them so well and so safely, when their old friend the water-rat popped his head out of his hole which was close by.
"Hullo!" he said. "Here you are again! I thought I knew your voices. Well, did you get what you went for?"
"Yes, we did," said Fuzz and Buzz, pointing to the bag full of corn which lay beside them.
"You surprise me," said the rat. "One hears such tales of Miss Patty Grey-Fur that I did not believe she would have given you anything. Well, you can't go any farther tonight, for it is getting dark, so if you will spend the night with me I shall be very happy."
"And I must be going," said the pigeon. And though Fuzz and Buzz begged him to eat some of their corn before he went, he would not take a single grain, and after saying good-bye he spread his wings and flew away back to the barn.
Then the rat took Fuzz and Buzz down to his hole, and his wife was very kind to them. And when the two rats saw the piece of tallow-candle which Fuzz and Buzz had brought for them, their sharp black eyes shone with pleasure, and while Fuzz and Buzz ate a few grains of corn for their supper, the two rats ate the tallow-candle, and said that they had not enjoyed anything so much for a long time.
When they awoke in the morning they found that the stream was frozen quite hard. The rat said he would get a big dock-leaf, and that they should sit on it with their bag, while he would pull them over the ice. It did not take the rat very long to find a big strong dock-leaf, and a few minutes afterwards Fuzz and Buzz were sitting on it, and were gliding over the firm ice even faster than they had sailed down the stream two days before.
The rat was very strong, he never seemed to want to stop for breath, but, with the stalk of the dock-leaf held firmly in his mouth, he ran on and on the whole day long, until at last he reached the spot near which the Brownie family lived.
There the rat said good-bye to them, and taking a little run to give himself a good start, he put his feet together and slid away down the stream at a rate which soon took him out of sight.
Then Fuzz and Buzz, dragging the heavy bag of corn after them, went home as fast as they could.
Mr. and Mrs. Brownie were very glad to get their two children safely back again. And when they saw what a lot of corn Fuzz and Buzz had brought back with them, they knew that they now had more than enough food to last them until the spring came.
And during the long winter evenings, when the wind was blowing and the snow was falling, Fuzz and Buzz used to sit in their warm, cosy nest, and talk about all they had seen and done when they went down to the barn to fetch the corn.
Transcriber's Notes:
The following misprint has been corrected:
[they had to go whereever] —>
[they had to go wherever]
A Contents-list has been added for the convenience of the reader.