little underground house, much like their own, where they could
breathe again.

"Now we are safe!" exclaimed the muskrat. "Just dig a back door and you
can get out."

So Sammie and Susie did so, and, pretty soon, they found themselves in a
nice field, some distance back from the water. They could see the boys
and their dog still watching near the bank to catch Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy,
and the boys never knew how the muskrat and the rabbit children escaped.

"My! but that was exciting," said Sammie, when they were on their way
home.

"Indeed it was," agreed Susie. "I'm so frightened that I have almost
forgotten how to swim."

"It will all come back to you the next time you go in the water," said
Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. "But I must hurry home now, or dinner will be late."

They got to the burrow without anything more happening. Mamma Littletail
and Uncle Wiggily Longears were much alarmed when told about the narrow
escape.

"Those boys!" cried the old rabbit. "If I wasn't laid up with
rheumatism, I'd show them!" and he snapped his teeth in quite a savage
manner indeed, for a rabbit can get angry at times.

After dinner Mamma Littletail asked Sammie and Susie to go to the
cabbage-field store for her, but, as Sammie wanted to stay home and
make a whistle out of a carrot, Susie went alone. As she was walking
along under a big tree, she heard a noise in the branches, and, looking
up, she saw a number of squirrels. One was the squirrel who had given
her old nest to Mrs. Wren. The little gray chaps were running about,
seemingly much excited over something. Presently they all scampered
down, and Susie saw that they had their mouths full of nuts. They put
them on the ground in a little heap, and then the little bunny girl
noticed that there was, nearby, an old stump, and it was set just like a
table, with dried leaves for plates, and the tops of acorns for cups.

"What is going on here?" Susie asked the squirrel whom she knew.

"I am giving a party in honor of having moved into my new nest," said
the squirrel. "Wouldn't you like to come?"

"Yes," said Susie very politely, "I would like very much to."

"Then," said the squirrel, "hop up on the stump, and I will get an extra
plate for you." Susie did so. It was the first party she had ever
attended, but I can't tell you what happened until to-morrow.

XII

SUSIE GOES TO A PARTY

Up and down the big oak tree scampered the squirrels, bringing nuts and
acorns from hollow