Part 5 (1/2)

After the cook had gone away and shut the door they stole softly back, and this ti new to show: he took the little Country Mouse into a corner on the top shelf, where a big jar of dried prunes stood open After e dried prune out of the jar on to the shelf and began to nibble at it This was even better than the brown sugar The little Country Mouse liked the taste so h

But all at once, in theat the door and a sharp, loud MIAOUW!

”What is that?” said the Country Mouse The City Mouse just whispered, ”sh!+” and ran as fast as he could to the hole The Country Mouse ran after, you may be sure, as fast as HE could As soon as they were out of danger the City Mouse said, ”That was the old Cat; she is the best ets you, you are lost”

”This is very terrible,” said the little Country Mouse; ”let us not go back to the cupboard again”

”No,” said the City Mouse, ”I will take you to the cellar; there is so especial there”

So the City Mouse took his little friend down the cellar stairs and into a big cupboard where there were many shelves On the shelves were jars of butter, and cheeses in bags and out of bags Overhead hung bunches of sausages, and there were spicy apples in barrels standing about It sood that it went to the little Country Mouse's head He ran along the shelf and nibbled at a cheese here, and a bit of butter there, until he saw an especially rich, very delicious-s piece of cheese on a queer little stand in a corner

He was just on the point of putting his teeth into the cheese when the City Mouse saw him

”Stop! stop!” cried the City Mouse ”That is a trap!”

The little Country Mouse stopped and said, ”What is a trap?”

”That thing is a trap,” said the little City Mouse ”Thecomes down on your head hard, and you're dead”

The little Country Mouse looked at the trap, and he looked at the cheese, and he looked at the little City Mouse ”If you'll excuse o horain to eat and eat it in peace and coar and dried prunes and cheese,--and be frightened to death all the time!”

So the little Country Mouse went back to his home, and there he stayed all the rest of his life

LITTLE JACK ROLLAROUND[1]

[1] Based on Theodor Store Wester) Very freely adapted from the German story

Once upon a time there was a wee little boy who slept in a tiny trundle-bed near his reat bed The trundle-bed had castors on it so that it could be rolled about, and there was nothing in the world the little boy liked so much as to have it rolled When his mother came to bed he would cry, ”Roll me around! rollbed and push the little bed back and forth till she was tired The little boy could never get enough; so for this he was called ”Little Jack Rollaround”

One night he had made his mother roll hi, ”Roll me around! roll me around!” His mother pushed hi; then she stopped But Little Jack Rollaround kept on crying, ”Roll around! roll around!”

By and by the Moon peeped in at theHe saw a funny sight: Little Jack Rollaround was lying in his trundle-bed, and he had put up one little fat leg for a mast, and fastened the corner of his wee shi+rt to it for a sail, and he was blowing at it with all his , ”Roll around! roll around!” Slowly, slowly, the little trundle-bed boat began tothe floor and up the wall and across the ceiling and down again!

”More! more!” cried Little Jack Rollaround; and the little boat sailed faster up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall, and over the floor The Moon laughed at the sight; but when Little Jack Rollaround saw the Moon, he called out, ”Open the door, old Moon! I want to roll through the town, so that the people can see me!”

The Moon could not open the door, but he shone in through the keyhole, in a broad band And Little Jack Rollaround sailed his trundle-bed boat up the beaht, old Moon,” he said; ”I want the people to seewith hi down the streets into the e They rolled past the town hall and the schoolhouse and the church; but nobody saw little Jack Rollaround, because everybody was in bed, asleep

”Why don't the people coh up on the church steeple, the Weather-vane answered, ”It is no time for people to be in the streets; decent folk are in their beds”

”Then I'll go to the woods, so that the ani, old Moon, and ht, and they came to the forest