“Your ways are familiar,” answered Gray Mouse, “but your face I do not remember at all.”
“Why, I am your long-lost brother, Church Mouse,” squeaked that wealthy animal, “and I have just come back to visit all my friends and relations.”
Church Mouse strutted up and down the porch, whirled his cane and played with his watch chain. Gray Mouse was sitting in his old rocking chair and he had on his shabbiest pair of carpet slippers.
Adder asks what witch Church Mouse means.
“You need not be so proud,” said Gray Mouse. “I remember the time when you did not have a piece of cheese with which to bless yourself. Don’t put on any airs with your coach and your old tumblebugs. I have not forgotten when you lived in the church across the road, and were so poor that many is the time you were glad to come over to my poor little house for dinner.”
“You need not be cross,” replied Church Mouse, “I am not proud, and to-morrow I shall bring you a very large cheese.”
“I am very glad to see you,” said Gray Mouse, changing his manners and smiling. “Now, tell me how did you get so sleek and fat?”