forest and crossed the
road into what had been, in the summer, a beautiful field of waving
corn, but was now only a mass of hard stalks. She wandered on, seeing
nothing but the sky above her head, till she suddenly found herself
close to an opening which seemed to lead underground.

'It will be warm, at any rate,' thought Maia, 'and perhaps the person
who lives there will give me something to eat. At any rate, I can't be
worse off than I am now.' And she walked boldly down the passage.
By-and-by she came to a door which stood ajar, and, peeping in,
discovered a whole room full of corn. This gave her heart, and she
went on more swiftly, till she reached a kitchen where an old field
mouse was baking a cake.

'You poor little animal,' cried the mouse, who had never seen anything
like her before, 'you look starved to death! Come and sit here and get
warm, and share my dinner with me.'

Maia almost wept with joy at the old mouse's kind words. She needed no
second bidding, but ate more than she had ever done in her life,
though it was not a breakfast for a humming-bird! When she had quite
finished she put out her hand and smiled, and the old mouse said to
her:

'Can you tell stories? If so you may stay with me till the sun gets
hot again, and you shall help me with my house. But it is dull here in
the winter unless you have somebody clever enough to amuse you.'

Yes, Maia had learned a great many stories from her foster-mother,
and, besides, there were all her own adventures, and her escapes from
death. She knew also how a room should be swept, and never failed to
get up early in the morning and have everything clean and tidy for the
old mouse.

So the winter passed away pleasantly, and Maia began to talk of the
spring, and of the time when she would have to go out into the world
again and seek her fortune.

'Oh, you need not begin to think of _that_ for a while yet,' answered
the field-mouse. 'Up on the earth they have a proverb:

When the day lengthens
Then the cold strengthens;

it has been quite warm up to now, and the snow may fall any time.
Never a winter goes by without it, and _then_ you will be very
thankful you are _here_, and not outside! But I dare say it is quiet
for a young thing like you,' she added, 'and I have invited my
neighbour the mole to come and pay us a visit. He has been asleep all
these months, but I hear he is waking up again. You would be a lucky
girl if he took into his head t