not give it so much as a nut. Times are awfully
bad."

"So they are," said the house-mouse. "My case is the same as yours. You
need not fear, however, that I have come to beg. I have only come to
have a chat with you. Can't we go into your place for a little while?"

The wood-mouse reflected a bit. She very much objected to having the
other down and letting her see all the beautiful food that lay stored up
below. So she shook her head with decision:

"Not so early in the morning, cousin," she said. "In an hour or two you
will be welcome, if you dare go out then and risk meeting the cat. But
the rooms haven't been done yet. I know how neat and particular you
house-mice are, so I should be ashamed to show you my home before it's
quite clean and tidy. I should prefer you to wait until the winter's
over, when I have had my spring-cleaning."

"Oh, very well!" said the house-mouse. "Then we'll stay here, though
it's horribly cold sitting on one's bare tail in the snow. As I said, I
only wanted to talk to you a bit. It's about the family. I don't know if
you have heard that a cousin of ours has arrived from Copenhagen?"

"No, I haven't," said the wood-mouse. "What's he called? Is he a smart
fellow?"

"She's called the brown rat. It's a she," replied the house-mouse. "And
she really was very smart at first. She came in the packing-case in
which we get our groceries every year from the shop in Copenhagen. It is
a great big case, full of the most delicious things you can think of.
She had only found her way into it by mistake and so travelled across
with it."

"That's what you may call travelling first-class," said the wood-mouse,
laughing.

"One may indeed," said the house-mouse. "I should have no objection to
travelling round the world in a packing-case like that. However, she was
a young bride expecting her babies every day. She therefore at once made
herself a home in the barn; and the children arrived four days after."

"Oh, yes!" said the wood-mouse. "There are always plenty of children and
there are always more and more coming."

"That is so," said the house-mouse. "But now hear how things went. At
first, Cousin Rat was extremely amiable. She treated me to sugar and
cinnamon and flour and sugar-candy and so forth during the whole of the
four days. You must know that she had gnawed herself out of the case,
which stood in the barn waiting to be unpacked. Well, I accepted her
invitation and ate away. Wouldn't you