night, and has to run about,
and that's why she's so tired. It might be that.'

'It would be easy to catch her, then, and bring her home in your pocket,
if you waited till the magic time came,' I suggested, half joking again,
of course.

'It might be,' agreed Pete, quite seriously, 'or it might be very, very
difficult, unless we could make her understand at the mouse time that we
were friends. We can't settle anything till we see her, and talk to her
like a little girl, of course.'

'You certainly couldn't talk to her like anything else,' I said; 'but
I'm sure I don't see how you mean to talk to her at all.'

'I do,' said Peterkin. 'I've been planning it since last night. We can
go round that way once or twice to look at the parrot, and just stand
about. Nobody would wonder at us if they saw we were looking at him. And
very likely we'd see _something_, as she lives in the very next-door
house. P'raps she comes to the window sometimes, and she might notice
us if we were looking up at the parrot. It would be easiest if she was
in the downstairs room.'

'I don't suppose she is there all day,' I said. 'The parrot would not
have heard her talking so much if she were. I think she must have been
out on the balcony sometimes when it was warmer.'

'Yes,' Peterkin agreed. 'I thought of that. Very likely she only comes
downstairs for her dinner and tea. It's the dining-room, like Mrs.
Wylie's.'

'And if she only comes down there late she wouldn't see us in the dark,
and, besides, the parrot wouldn't be out by then. And besides that,
except for going to tea to Mrs. Wylie's, we'd never get leave to be out
by ourselves so late. At least _you_ wouldn't. Of course, for me, it's
sometimes nearly dark when I come home from school.'

I really did not see how Pete did mean to manage it. But the
difficulties I spoke of only seemed to make him more determined. I could
not help rather admiring him for it: he quite felt, I fancy, as if he
was one of his favourite fairy-tale princes. And in the queer way I have
spoken of already, he somehow made me feel with him. I did not go over
all the difficulties in order to stop him trying, but because I was
actually interested in seeing how he was going to overcome them.

He was silent for a moment or two after my last speech, staring before
him with his round blue eyes.

Then he said quietly--

'Yes; I'd thought of most of those things. But you will see. We'll
manage it somehow. I daresay