a waving grass blade
happened to catch somebody's eye. Everybody at the farmhouse had been
too busy with haying to spend any time running a lawn mower.

Why not move to the farmyard? The thought came into Master Meadow
Mouse's head. It seemed to him that the farmyard would be a fine place
to live. There was grain scattered here and there, where somebody had
fed the hens. There was the duck pond near-by, when he wanted a swim.

"I'll come!" Master Meadow Mouse decided. "I'll come--if I can find a
good place for a nest."

Thereupon he began to look about for a site for his new home. And it
wasn't long before he had found one that suited him. When he saw the
woodpile he squeaked with delight.

"The very place!" he cried. "I'll begin to built my nest to-night."

So he set to work. He carried dead leaves and dried grass to the
woodpile and started to make a snug home for himself in a space between
the logs, well inside the heap of wood. And he had just crept from a
chink and stood under the stars when a tiny voice greeted him with a
cry, "What ho, stranger!"

Master Meadow Mouse looked around. And there on a stick of wood just
behind him was a plump gray person. The newcomer looked the least bit
like Master Meadow Mouse himself, except that his tail was ever so much
longer.

"I'm Moses Mouse and I live in the farmhouse," said the gray gentleman.

"I'm Master Meadow Mouse and I'm going to live in this woodpile," said
the reddish-brown chap in reply.

"That's good news," Moses Mouse remarked. "But you must look out for
Miss Snooper," he added.

"Who is she?" Master Meadow Mouse asked his new friend.

"Miss Snooper--" Moses Mouse explained--"Miss Snooper is our name for
Miss Kitty Cat. She lives in the farmhouse. And when she isn't indoors
she's usually prowling about the yard."

To the great astonishment of Moses Mouse, the short-tailed stranger
seemed in no wise startled by his news.

"Huh!" Master Meadow Mouse exclaimed. "If this Miss Snooper--as you
call her--bothers me, I'll serve her as I did one of her kittens."

"What did you do to the kitten?" Moses Mouse inquired with great
interest.

"I bit her nose," said Master Meadow Mouse.

Moses Mouse gazed at him with horror.

"Don't try that on the old lady!" he cried. "If you do, you'll be
sorry."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

9

Miss Snooper

MOSES MOUSE, who lived in the farmhouse, had warned Master Meadow Mouse.
He had warned him