“They are not yours,” said Anna; “a boy with a whistle-pipe gave them to me.”
“But he piped to me for them,” said the mouse; “I have wardrobes full in my castle. You are quite welcome to them; but I must see that you do not spoil them. I shall sit by you at dinner, and play with you, and walk out with you, and sleep on your pillow at night.”
“Oh dear! oh dear!” said Anna; “I wish I had never asked for a silk frock and bonnet.”
“Shall I take them back?”
“Oh yes! oh yes! please, Countess Mouse,
Take them all back to your house.”
“Well, as you have made a rhyme, I will do so,” said the mouse, and she slapped Anna’s arm sharply with her parasol. Then Anna’s new clothes fell off, and she found herself in her old cotton dress again. And the mouse grew larger and larger, and ran away to her castle with the silk frock and the grand bonnet.
Now while this was happening to Anna a queer-looking man in a peaked hat and long overcoat said to Peter, “Shall I be your horse?”
“Yes,” said Peter. And the man took the reins, and they went along merrily enough.