"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."
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.
"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."