"I don't know," Dickie answered, "unless it was you."
Simon Screecher chuckled.
"You're a bright young chap," he observed. "But that's not surprising, for I notice that you belong to the Deer Mouse family, and everybody's aware that they are one of the brightest families in Pleasant Valley—what are left of them."
These last words made Dickie Deer Mouse more uneasy than ever. But he made up his mind not to let Simon Screecher know that he was worried.
"I have a great many relations," he declared stoutly. "Ours is a big family."
"Yes—but not nearly so big as it was when I first came to this neighborhood to live," Simon told him with a sly smile.
He had hardly finished that remark when a loud wha-wha, whoo-ah came from a hemlock not far away. And the next moment Simon's cousin Solomon Owl sailed through the moonlight and alighted near him.
Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help thinking that it was a great night for the Owl family. And he was surprised to notice that Simon Screecher did not act overjoyed at seeing his cousin.
"It's a pleasant night," said Solomon Owl in his deep, hollow voice.
Simon Screecher replied somewhat sourly that he supposed it was. And he changed his seat, so that he might keep his eyes on both his cousin and Dickie Deer Mouse at the same time.