"Don't you see that you've grown small?" Hortense asked.
"Too small for the cookies," said Lowboy. "My clothes are so tight that I can't squeeze this last piece into my pocket."
"Now we're ready for the next part of the game," said Hortense, getting up.
"No running or anything like that," said Lowboy. "I can't do it."
"You'll only have to walk a short way, and after that it will be easy."
But Hortense had forgotten that to people as small as they had become, it was a long walk down the hall, and the stairs, and through the house.
"We should have eaten the cookies outside, of course," said she. "I didn't think."
However, following Hortense as leader, they finally reached the barn. Hortense stopped at the door.
"How will we ever get onto their backs?" said she. "Of course, we should have climbed on first and then eaten the cookies. I'm managing this very badly. Perhaps," she added hopefully, "they'll be lying down."
As luck would have it, Tom and Jerry were lying down in their stalls, for they were still weary from their adventure of the night before. Small as they were, Hortense and Highboy had no great difficulty in scrambling up Tom's side and taking a firm hold of his mane, nor did Jerry object when Andy and Lowboy mounted him. Tom looked at his riders in mild surprise, but made no move to get up.