Project Gutenberg's The Travels of Fuzz and Buzz, by Geraldine Mockler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Travels of Fuzz and Buzz Author: Geraldine Mockler Illustrator: S.B. Pearse Release Date: March 19, 2018 [EBook #56790] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAVELS OF FUZZ AND BUZZ *** Produced by R.G.P.M. van Giesen
| CHAP. | |
| I. | MR. BROWNIE MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT |
| II. | THE WATER-RAT PLAYS HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH THE OWL |
| III. | THE TOMTIT GIVES FUZZ AND BUZZ SOME BAD NEWS |
| IV. | FUZZ AND BUZZ SAVE MISS PATTY GREY-FUR |
ONCE, not so very long ago, a family of field-mice lived in the middle of a big wood. There was Mr. Brownie, the father-mouse, and Mrs. Brownie, the mother mouse, and their two children, a boy-mouse and a girl-mouse, whose names were Fuzz and Buzz.
In the summer, and in the spring and autumn too, field-mice have a very nice time indeed; but in the winter, when the ground is frozen, and the nuts and acorns and berries are gone from the trees and bushes, their life is not quite so happy. And then, if the father-mouse has not laid in a good store of food they have not enough to eat, and are often very hungry until the spring comes round again.
But this Mr. Brownie was a very careful mouse, and during the autumn he always got such a large store of nuts and acorns, that when the winter came it found their larder nice and full.
But one windy day in the month of October, when he was hard at work digging up a big grass-root to carry home for the winter, a sad thing happened to him. A heavy branch was blown down from a tree close by, and it hit one of poor Mr. Brownie's front paws and broke it.
Fuzz and Buzz, who were having a merry game with the yellow leaves that were being tossed about by the wind, ran up to him looking very much frightened indeed, and then Fuzz went off as fast as he could to tell his mother that his father had been hurt.
Of course Mrs. Brownie came at once, and as one or two of her neighbours ran after her to see where she was going in such a hurry, they helped to carry poor Mr. Brownie home to his cosy nest.
And it was a great many days before he was able to leave it again, for his paw took a long time to get well.
And when at last he limped on three paws to the door of his little house and looked out into the wood, autumn had gone and winter had come. And such a cold winter, too! Every blade of grass was covered with white frost, and every leaf had a pretty white edge to it.
Mr. Brownie gave a big shiver as he glanced round him, and then he said to his wife:
"My dear, I hope while I have been ill you have not forgotten to fill our larder. It was nearly empty when I was last in it."
"But, my dear," Mrs. Brownie cried, "I have forgotten to fill it. Besides, I have been so busy nursing you that I have not had time to think of anything else. And I don't believe that there is a single nut or one grass-root left in it."
"Then, my dear," said Mr. Brownie sadly, "we shall starve this winter, for it is too late now to find any acorns or anything else. The squirrels and the birds have taken them all."
Fuzz and Buzz looked very unhappy when they heard what their father and mother were saying, and Fuzz said to his sister:
"How sad it will be to be always hungry!"
And the two young mice, and their father and mother as well, looked still more unhappy as the days went by and the nuts and acorns in their larder grew fewer and fewer. But though Mr. Brownie could only limp about on three legs, he was not idle during those days. Mrs. Brownie was so very fat that she could not walk far without sitting down to rest, so she stayed at home, but Mr. Brownie, with Fuzz and Buzz trotting one on each side of him, went about the wood looking everywhere for nuts or acorns. But they could not find any. Mr. Brownie was a very proud mouse, so he would not beg from his neighbours; but they soon heard that he had very few nuts and acorns, and without waiting to be asked they gave him as much food as they could spare from their own larders. But that was not very much. The summer had been a wet and a very short one, and none of the mice who lived in that wood had been able to collect a very big store of food. So what they could give to the Brownie family would not be nearly enough to last them until the spring came, and the sun thawed the ground and made it soft again so that they could scratch into the earth and dig up roots.
"Oh, dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. Brownie. "Why didn't we take my sister's advice and go and live as she does in a barn, where there is always plenty of good oats and corn to be picked up?"
"Because," said Mr. Brownie, "there are too many cats and dogs living near barns to make them at all safe places for honest field-mice like ourselves. But you never know when you are well off, Mrs. Brownie."
"Well, at any rate," Mrs. Brownie remarked, "we couldn't be worse off than we are just now. For what is to become of us all without any food this winter, I am sure I don't know." And then poor Mrs. Brownie put her front paws up to her face and began to cry.
"Mother! Father!" Fuzz said suddenly in an eager little squeak. "Why shouldn't Buzz and I go down to the barn where my aunt lives and bring back as much corn as ever we can carry'?"
But no sooner had he said that than Mrs. Brownie stopped crying, and told her son in a very severe voice indeed not to talk nonsense; and Mr. Brownie said that if he let them go he was sure that they would never come back again, for some big dog or cat would be sure to kill and eat them.
"Well, you see, Father," said Fuzz, "if we don't go we shall die just the same, for there are only three acorns and one nut, which is a bad one, left in the larder."
And what Fuzz said was so very true that in the end he had his way, and before the Brownie family went to bed that night it was settled that the very next morning he and Buzz should start for the barn where their aunt lived.
Miss Patty Grey-Fur was the name of their aunt, and once, about two summers ago, she had come out to the wood on a visit to the Brownies. She had not stayed very long, for she said she found the country a very dull place. She had seemed a nice, gentle old lady-mouse, and Fuzz and Buzz were sure that she would be kind to them and give them as much corn as they wanted.
So early the next morning, after having said good-bye to their father and mother, Fuzz and Buzz set out on their travels.
It would take them quite two days to reach the barn; but they could not lose their way, for all they had to do was to follow the stream that ran through the wood until it brought them out into the big river on the bank of which the barn stood.
It was such a fine frosty morning, that although Fuzz and Buzz had only had two bites each at an acorn they were very merry; and as they ran in and out over the dry leaves that lay on the ground, they talked gaily of the great heap of oats and corn that they meant to bring back with them. How they were going to carry it they did not stop to think, for, as Fuzz, who was a very wise young mouse, said, the first thing they had to do was to get to the barn.
The sound of the running water led them straight to the stream, which flowed through the wood very quickly, and was quite deep enough to drown both of them if they had fallen into it. After they had run beside the stream for some time Buzz began to get rather tired.
"Oh, wouldn't it be nice," she said, "if we had a boat, Fuzz, and could be carried down the stream in it!"
"That's a very good idea of yours," Fuzz cried at once; "let's look for a nice piece of bark, and then we will put it in the stream and float on it."
Buzz was just a little bit frightened when she found what Fuzz was going to do, and she said she was sure they would be drowned; but Fuzz told her not to be silly, and said that as long as he was with her no harm should come to her. Then he set to work to look for a piece of bark which should do for a raft. He soon found one, and, helped by Buzz, he pulled it to the edge of the water and let it fall into the stream. Then before it had time to float away he took hold of one of Buzz's little front paws, and together they jumped on to their raft.
"Oh, oh!" squeaked Buzz in a great fright, for their weight had made the wood sink about a quarter of an inch below the water, and that was quite enough to wet their little feet, and their legs too. And the water was so cold! But in a minute their raft came up again, the water ran off it, and it floated merrily away down the stream. Buzz was then no longer afraid of being drowned; and after they had dried their paws and curled their tails round them to keep them warm, she said that it was much nicer to sail down the stream than to walk along its banks. And Fuzz said the same.
THE raft was quite big enough for them to sit side by side, but of course there was not very much room for them to move about. They were quite content, however, to sit quite still, and to watch the banks slipping past them.
Several times they had narrow escapes from being drowned, for as they had no means of guiding their little raft they had to go wherever the stream took them, and once it bumped them right up against a big stone that rose out of the water. This made the raft tilt to one side so much, that if Fuzz and Buzz had not held tightly to one another they would have slid off into the water. But before either of them had time to feel frightened, they were carried safely past the big stone and were floating down the stream again.
As the morning went on, Fuzz and Buzz began to get very hungry. So when the raft floated to one side of the stream and got caught by some tall reeds which grew at the edge, Fuzz and Buzz made up their minds to land, and go into the wood and see if they could find something to eat.
Leaving their raft among the reeds, they climbed up the banks and went into the wood. And as just in that part of it some fine beech-trees were growing, Fuzz and Buzz, to their great delight, found several beech-nuts lying underneath the leaves. They sat down and ate a good dinner, and then, taking the rest of the beech-nuts with them, they went back to their raft and were soon sailing down the stream again.
Winter afternoons are very short, and not long after Fuzz and Buzz had had their dinner the sun began to turn into a great red ball, and to sink behind the trees.
"But we need not stop even when it does get dark," said Buzz, "for we can float along in the night just as well as in the day, and perhaps in the morning we shall find ourselves at Aunt Patty's barn."
"Not you!" said a hoarse voice so close to them that Fuzz and Buzz gave a little start, and then, looking down into the stream, they saw that a big water-rat was swimming along beside their raft.
"What did you say, please?" Fuzz asked politely.
"I said that if you went on floating after dark you would never get to wherever you are going," said the water-rat; "for in the hollow tree at the edge of the wood a big owl lives, and if he sees you he will have you for his supper, as sure as I am swimming here. Two such tender, fat young field-mice as you are don't come his way every night, and would be a rare treat for him."
But as neither Fuzz nor Buzz wished to be a rare treat for anybody, at least not in that way, they looked at one another, and a cold shiver ran down their backs. Fuzz was the first to feel brave again, or at least to pretend that he felt brave, and he said to the water-rat:
"But owls never come out in the daytime, they only fly about at night."
"Well, of course I know that," said the rat.
But Fuzz and Buzz, at any rate, did not want to be eaten by the owl who lived in the hollow tree, and they thanked the water-rat so much for his advice that he was quite pleased.
"Would you like some of our beech-nuts?" said Buzz.
"No, thank you," said the water-rat, whose voice, like the voices of all water-rats, was very gruff and hoarse; "I never eat that sort of thing. But it is very polite of you to ask me to have some, all the same."
Then, swimming sometimes beside them, and sometimes behind them, and sometimes in front of them, the rat went with them down the stream, and they told him where they were going and why they had to go.
"No food at all in your larder!" said the rat. "Dear me, that's bad. That is the worst of living on nuts and things of that sort. Now, I catch my food when I want it, and very good food it is too. Bacon and candle-ends are what I like best, but of course, living in the country as I do, I don't very often find any. In the spring, though, I eat a good many birds' eggs; and that reminds me that I know of an empty wren's nest near the edge of the wood. You might sleep there to-night, and go on to the barn in the morning. I will come with you and show it to you."
Fuzz and Buzz, whose mother had taught them very nice manners, thanked him again, and the three went down the stream together, and the rat talked away so fast that none of them saw that it was growing darker and darker. But soon the low hooting of an owl broke the silence that had fallen over the wood, and Fuzz and Buzz looked at one another in a great fright.
"Let's get into the wood and hide,—quick, quick!" said Buzz.
But the rat, who did not seem to be in the least afraid, laughed at her.
"Look how high the banks are," he said. "Long before we could get to the top of them the owl would swoop down on us. But a little farther on there are some thick bushes, and if we can get under them before he sees us, we shall be quite safe."
But it was doubtful whether they would be able to reach the bushes in time, for when the owl hooted again, they could hear that he was very much nearer to them than before.
"Don't be afraid," said the rat, who now seemed to be quite enjoying the adventure. But Fuzz and Buzz, who could neither swim nor dive like the water-rat, were not able to help being afraid.
Again and again the owl hooted, and each time the cry sounded nearer.
"Never you mind," said the rat, as he dived right underneath their raft and came up on the other side, "he sha'n't catch you."
But Fuzz and Buzz did mind, and they thought as they crept close to each other in a great fright, that it would be sad indeed if the owl had them for his supper that night.
"He wouldn't look at you if he thought there was a chance of his getting me," said the rat. "You see, I am so much bigger that I would do for his breakfast next morning as well. Hullo! There he is, right overhead. Now, you watch, and you will see some fun."
And the rat suddenly swam about two or three yards in front of the raft, and made such a loud splashing with his paws and his tail that the owl could not help seeing him. In a moment he swooped down upon the water, and Buzz and Fuzz squeaked with terror. For they thought that their friend must have been caught. But not a bit of it. Just as the owl made that quick swoop the rat dived beneath the water, and the owl rose again without having caught him.
But the owl had heard their squeak, and he said to himself, that if he could not get a rat for his supper a mouse would do just as well. So down he flew again, and Fuzz and Buzz thought that their last moment had come. But when the owl was so close to them that they could see his sharp beak and his cruel claws quite plainly, their tails, which were floating in the water, were suddenly pulled, and they tumbled backwards head over heels into the stream.
Down, down they sank, so deep that the idea came into their heads, that if they were not going to be eaten they were going to be drowned. But just as they were gasping and choking for air they rose to the top of the water again, and then they saw that they were under some thick bushes, and that the rat, with the end of their tails in his mouth, was swimming towards the bank.
"Climb on to my back," said the rat, and though his fur was very wet and slippery, they did as they were told, and clung tightly round his neck.
"Wasn't that fun, eh?" said the rat with a laugh. "I am sure the owl is as mad as he can be. To lose his supper twice in one night is enough to make the old bird very angry. It's fine sport to play hide-and-seek with an owl, although it is rather dangerous. Well, here's the nest that I told you about. And now I must be going home, or my wife will wonder where I am. Good-bye! I hope you will have a safe journey, and that you will get as much corn as you want. Perhaps I may see you on your way back."
Hidden among the thick prickly branches of a hawthorn hedge not far from the ground, Fuzz and Buzz saw the empty wren's nest, and after thanking the rat for having saved their lives, they climbed into it and were soon fast asleep.
Next morning they went down to the stream and looked for their raft. And as, before he went home, the rat had put it where they could easily find it, they had not to look very long, and were soon floating down with the stream again.
BUT it was not nearly such a nice day as it had been yesterday. The sun never shone at all, and the snow fell in such big, thick flakes that sometimes they could hardly see a yard in front of them. Besides, a cold north wind was blowing, and it made the stream so rough that their raft danced up and down on the tiny waves, and more than once they were nearly upset.
The fields that lay on either side of the stream were quite empty, and it seemed as if everybody but Fuzz and Buzz thought it wiser to stay at home on such a cold day.
But about twelve o'clock they saw a tomtit hopping about on the branches of a willow-tree that grew near the water, and after looking at them in surprise for a moment he asked them where they were going.
They told him that they were going to see their aunt, Miss Patty Grey-Fur.
"Oh, are you?" said the tomtit. "Well, I should be sorry to call Miss Patty Grey-Fur an aunt of mine. Why are you going to see her?"
"Because we want some corn," said Fuzz.
"She won't give you any," said the tomtit. "She is the meanest old mouse that ever lived in a barn. You should just hear some of the tales that are told of her in these parts. You would turn round and go home if I told you one-half of what I know about her."
"Then we would rather not hear it, thank you," said Fuzz quickly, "for we must go on."
"Just as you like, of course," said the tomtit. But he was very sorry all the same to find that they would not listen to him, for tomtits like telling tales about their friends. That is why they are often called "tale-tits". Then he flew away; and as Fuzz and Buzz floated on alone, they asked each other what sort of a mouse their aunt could be.
"We shall soon know," said Buzz; "and it can't be true that she won't give us any corn."
All that afternoon their tiny raft sailed on and on, and at last, just as it was beginning to get dark, they heard the loud roar of the river into which their stream would soon flow. As they had no wish to be carried down by it to the sea, they stood up on their little hind legs, so as to be ready to catch hold of the first branch that came within their reach. And a minute or two later they were both clinging to the branch of a weeping-willow tree, and, running along it, they soon reached the bank, from which they watched the little piece of wood which had carried them so far and so well floating on without them.
Luckily for Fuzz and Buzz the top of the snow was frozen quite hard, so that they could walk over it quite easily, and after crossing a big white field they arrived at the barn where Miss Patty Grey-Fur lived.
"The next thing," said Fuzz, "is to find the way into the barn."
"You will be very clever if you do that," said a poor little weak voice beside them; and, looking down, they saw a tiny house-mouse shivering in the snow. "I have been trying to find a way in all day, but unless you go past Miss Patty Grey-Fur's hole there is no other way."
"Show me where Miss Patty Grey-Fur's hole is, then," said Fuzz boldly, "and I will knock at the door and tell her that we want to come in."
The little mouse opened his eyes wide at this, but he said nothing, and led the way round to the back of the barn. Now this barn was not, like most country barns, a tumble-down sort of place into which a mouse might make his way by any number of holes. It was quite a new barn, built of iron, and as Fuzz and Buzz followed the house-mouse they could not see a single hole anywhere. When they had walked nearly all round it, the house-mouse stopped beside a pipe that led up from the floor of the barn to the roof. Now this pipe did not go straight up in the way that pipes usually go, but it leaned to one side, so that an active mouse could easily walk up it.
"You must go up this pipe," said the house-mouse, "and when you get to the top you must walk along the gutter until you see a tiny hole in the roof, and then if you put your head inside it, you will see Miss Patty Grey-Fur sitting there."
So Fuzz and Buzz ran up the pipe and along the gutter as they had been told, until they came to the little hole in the roof. But just as Fuzz was going to put his head inside it, Miss Patty Grey-Fur popped hers out so suddenly that Fuzz very nearly tumbled backwards off the roof.
"What are you doing here?" she said in an angry squeak. "I have had nothing but beggars at my door all day long, and I am quite tired of telling them to go away."
"We aren't beggars, Aunt Patty," said Fuzz bravely. She looked such a very cross old mouse that he would have liked to run away. "We are your nephew and niece, Fuzz and Buzz Brownie."
But if he thought that she would be pleased to see them, he was very much mistaken.
"Oh, are you?" she said with a sort of sniff. "Well, then, the sooner you go home again the better. This is not at all a safe place for field-mice. There are dogs, and cats too, in the yard. Besides, there are a great many children, and if they saw you they would be sure to want to catch you and put you in a cage and keep you as a pet. How would you like that?"
"We should not like it at all, Aunt Patty," Fuzz said; "so if you will let us come inside the barn we shall feel much safer. And then tomorrow, when we have got enough corn, we will go home again."
"I shall do nothing of the sort," said Miss Patty Grey-Fur; and now her long whiskers were quite stiff with rage. "How dare you want my corn! There is not enough here to last me through the winter if I am not very careful of it. And I cannot afford to give you one single grain."
Now, as Fuzz, who had been peeping in through the hole, could see for himself, this was not true. The barn was full of corn from the roof to the floor. Then quite suddenly Fuzz began to laugh, and he laughed and laughed until the tears ran down his face.
"What are you laughing at?" said Miss Patty Grey-Fur. "You are a very rude young mouse indeed."
"I did not mean to be rude," said Fuzz, "but I could not help thinking, that if you did really eat all this corn you would be as big as the barn by the time the spring came." But before he had finished speaking Miss Patty Grey-Fur pulled her head in with a sudden jerk, and then shut the door in their faces.
And so Fuzz and Buzz were left standing outside in the gutter, and they had to climb down the pipe again, and tell the little house-mouse, who was waiting for them in the snow, that their aunt would not let them in either.
The next thing to be done was to find a place in which to spend the night, and the little house-mouse was just telling them that the only place he knew of was a cold, draughty hole behind the water-butt, when he suddenly stopped and pricked up his ears.
"We must hide," he said, "somebody is coming. Let us get inside the water-pipe."
And just as they had all three safely hidden themselves inside the end of the pipe that led up to Miss Patty Grey-Fur's door, four or five mice came round the corner of the barn and sat down in the snow underneath the pipe.
"I hope the others wont be long," said one of the mice, a big fat fellow with a very long tail. "It's cold work waiting here in the snow."
"Then why do they wait'?" whispered Buzz to the house-mouse. But he frowned at her not to talk.
Then several frozen-looking sparrows flew over the barn and sat down beside the mice, then came two pigeons, then some more mice, and then two barn-door fowls.
"I think we are all here now," said the big mouse who had spoken before, "and you all know that we are here to talk about Miss Patty Grey-Fur, and to make up our minds how we are to turn her out of the barn."
But when he had got as far as that, the other mice, and the sparrows and the pigeons and the fowls, all began to talk at once, and it was some time before Fuzz and Buzz and the house-mouse could hear what any of them were saying. But there was no doubt that they were all speaking of Miss Patty Grey-Fur, and calling her all sorts of names; and soon Fuzz heard the sparrows say, that though they had gone to her door and begged for a little corn because the snow had covered up all their other food, she had not given them one single grain. The pigeons had the same tale to tell of her, and so had everybody who had come to the meeting.
"Well," said the fat mouse, "listen to this plan of mine, and tell me if you think that it is a good one. Miss Patty Grey-Fur loves toasted cheese, and if nothing else will make her come out of her barn a piece of toasted cheese will. I have got a bit that I took out of a mouse-trap last night, and I will put it just outside her door. She will smell it and come out, and then we will push her off the roof. She will fall down to the ground, and then Rags the terrier will soon snap her up. That will be the end of Miss Patty Grey-Fur, and we shall have her barn all to ourselves."
Now, though Miss Patty Grey-Fur had been as unkind to them as she had been to everybody else, Fuzz and Buzz could not listen to this plot against her without feeling very angry, and as soon as the meeting was over, and the mice had gone back to their holes and the birds had flown away, Fuzz said that they must go up and tell her of the danger she was in. But they would have to be quick, for the big mouse had said that they would be back with the toasted cheese in a very few minutes.
SO they all three, for the house-mouse came too, ran up the inside of the pipe and knocked at Miss Patty Grey-Fur's door.
"Who's there?" she said in a very cross voice.
"Fuzz and Buzz," her nephew and niece said together.
"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said. "Haven't you gone home yet? Go away. I am not going to give you any of my corn, so you need not think that I am!"
But when Fuzz told her of the meeting that had just been held down in the yard, she opened her door at once and let them all three in. Her face was quite pale with fright.
"You may have as much corn as ever you like, all of you," she said. "You have saved my life. I am so fond of toasted cheese, that if I had smelt it I am sure I should have darted outside, and then they could easily have pushed me down from the roof. I wonder how any mouse could think of being so unkind to another mouse!"
But none of Miss Patty Grey-Fur's guests answered. For their three mouths were so full of corn that they could not speak.
They all thought that the barn was quite one of the nicest places they had ever seen in all their lives. It was filled with corn from top to bottom, and there was enough in it, so at least Fuzz thought, to feed hundreds of mice for hundreds of years. And the little thin house-mouse ate more than either Fuzz or Buzz, for though they had been hungry he had been almost starving.
By and by a knock came at the door, and a smell of toasted cheese stole through the barn.
But though the mice outside, and the sparrows and the pigeons and the two barn-door fowls, waited and waited, no Miss Patty Grey-Fur came darting out to snatch the nice titbit. Her door remained firmly closed, and by and by the birds flew away, and Miss Patty Grey-Fur and her three guests curled themselves up in a warm corner and went to sleep.
But though the birds had flown away and the two fowls had gone to roost, the five mice who had climbed up on to the roof did not dare to go down into the yard again. For the big mouse had told Rags, that if he would wait at the bottom of the pipe he would throw down fat Miss Patty Grey-Fur to him; and so Rags had left his warm kennel, and had sat down in the snow beside the water-pipe, waiting for Miss Patty Grey-Fur to fall down into his mouth.
When the time passed and she did not come he grew very angry, and as in the bright moonlight he could see the five mice sitting up in the gutter that ran round the roof, he made up his mind to wait until they came down, and to eat them instead of Miss Patty Grey-Fur.
So, as the five mice could see him waiting down below, and could guess very well why he was waiting, it was no wonder that they did not dare to go down into the yard. And they passed a very cold and very unhappy night in the gutter.
In the morning Rags called to his friend the cat, who had just come out of the cottage, and showed her where the five mice were sitting in a row. Puss said that while two or three of them would make a very dainty breakfast for her she would throw the others down to him. Then she began to climb up the water-pipe.
The five mice were very much frightened indeed, and they knocked at Miss Patty Grey-Fur's door and begged her to let them in before the cat caught them.
Whether Miss Patty Grey-Fur would have forgiven them and let them in will never be known, for she was sleeping so soundly that she did not hear them tapping.
But Fuzz, who had been awake for some time, heard the noise they were making outside, and he opened the door and let them in. And just in time too, for as the tail of the fifth mouse whisked into the hole the cat came round the corner.
She was very cross when she saw that neither she nor Rags was going to have any of those five mice for breakfast.
As for the mice, they were trembling so much at the narrow escape they had had, that it was some time before they could thank Fuzz and Buzz for having let them in.
Then they all ran away from the door and right down into the middle of the barn, for the cat had put her paw through the hole and was trying to catch them. But when she found that her claws touched nothing but the air, she climbed down from the roof and began to scold Rags for having sent her on a wild-goose chase. Though why she should call the five mice wild geese she did not even know herself. While she was scolding Rags the five mice were eating a very nice breakfast indeed, and their poor little half-frozen bodies were gradually getting warm again in the snug, cosy barn.
Miss Patty Grey-Fur had quite forgiven them for the plot they had hatched against her, and when she saw how hungry and how cold they were, she became very sorry that she had not let them in before. She saw now how greedy and selfish she had been, and she was very much ashamed of herself. She made up her mind never again to be so greedy, but to let every mouse in the yard come into the barn and share the good corn in it.
But Fuzz and Buzz had not forgotten the poor half-frozen-looking sparrows and pigeons who had been at the meeting the night before, and they begged their aunt to allow them to put out some breakfast for the birds too.
"Why, of course," said Miss Patty Grey-Fur, who wanted now to be as good and kind as she had before been bad and selfish. "I am sorry that my front-door is too small for them to come inside, but we will carry some corn out to the gutter."
As there were altogether nine mice in the barn, and as they all worked with a will, there was soon quite a little pile of corn in the gutter. The birds were not very long in finding out the feast that had been got ready for them, and they flew down on to the roof and made a very good meal indeed.
"And now," said Fuzz when all the birds had had as much as ever they could eat, "we ought to be going home again." But he looked with a little shiver out on to the white world that lay round the barn. "And we shall have to walk all the way, you know, Buzz," he said, "for the stream won't take us back again, as it is going the wrong way."
"No, you shall not walk," cooed a pretty gray pigeon, who was still perched on the edge of the gutter. "I will carry you both as far as the wood. So get as much corn as you can and we will start at once, for I should like to be back before it gets dark."
Then the gray pigeon flew down into the yard, and picked up in his beak a paper bag which was lying in the snow. It had once held sweets, but now it was empty, and had been thrown away by one of the children.
"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.
"You surprise me," said the rat. "One hears such tales of Miss Patty Grey-Fur that I did not believe she would have given you anything. Well, you can't go any farther tonight, for it is getting dark, so if you will spend the night with me I shall be very happy."
"And I must be going," said the pigeon. And though Fuzz and Buzz begged him to eat some of their corn before he went, he would not take a single grain, and after saying good-bye he spread his wings and flew away back to the barn.
Then the rat took Fuzz and Buzz down to his hole, and his wife was very kind to them. And when the two rats saw the piece of tallow-candle which Fuzz and Buzz had brought for them, their sharp black eyes shone with pleasure, and while Fuzz and Buzz ate a few grains of corn for their supper, the two rats ate the tallow-candle, and said that they had not enjoyed anything so much for a long time.
When they awoke in the morning they found that the stream was frozen quite hard. The rat said he would get a big dock-leaf, and that they should sit on it with their bag, while he would pull them over the ice. It did not take the rat very long to find a big strong dock-leaf, and a few minutes afterwards Fuzz and Buzz were sitting on it, and were gliding over the firm ice even faster than they had sailed down the stream two days before.
The rat was very strong, he never seemed to want to stop for breath, but, with the stalk of the dock-leaf held firmly in his mouth, he ran on and on the whole day long, until at last he reached the spot near which the Brownie family lived.
There the rat said good-bye to them, and taking a little run to give himself a good start, he put his feet together and slid away down the stream at a rate which soon took him out of sight.
Then Fuzz and Buzz, dragging the heavy bag of corn after them, went home as fast as they could.
Mr. and Mrs. Brownie were very glad to get their two children safely back again. And when they saw what a lot of corn Fuzz and Buzz had brought back with them, they knew that they now had more than enough food to last them until the spring came.
And during the long winter evenings, when the wind was blowing and the snow was falling, Fuzz and Buzz used to sit in their warm, cosy nest, and talk about all they had seen and done when they went down to the barn to fetch the corn.
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