"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.