He found Mrs. Whitefoot very much excited. She was delighted with
that old nest and she showed it. For his part, Whitefoot couldn't see
anything but a deserted old house of no use to any one. To be sure, it
had been a very good home in its time. It had been made of tiny twigs,
stalks of old weeds, leaves, little fine roots and mud. It was still
quite solid, and was firmly fixed in a crotch of the young tree. But
Whitefoot couldn't see how it could be turned into a home for a Mouse.
He said as much.
Little Mrs. Whitefoot became more excited than ever. “You dear old
stupid,” said she, “whatever is the matter with you? Don't you see that
all we need do is to put a roof on, make an entrance on the under side,
and make a soft comfortable bed inside to make it a delightful home?”
“I don't see why we don't make a new home altogether,” protested
Whitefoot. “It seems to me that hollow stub of mine is ever so much
better than this. That has good solid walls, and we won't have to do a
thing to it.”
“I told you once before that it doesn't suit me for summer,” replied
little Mrs. Whitefoot rather sharply, because she was beginning to lose
patience. “It will be all right for winter, but winter is a long way
off. It may suit you for summer, but it doesn't suit me, and this place
does. So this is where we are going to live.”
“Certainly, my dear. Certainly,” replied Whitefoot very meekly. “If you
want to live here, here we will live. But I must confess it isn't clear
to me yet how we are going to make a decent home out of this old nest.”
“Don't you worry about that,” replied Mrs. Whitefoot. “You can get the
material, and I'll attend to the rest. Let us waste no time about it. I
am anxious to get our home finished and to feel a little bit settled. I
have already planned just what has got to be done and how we will do it.
Now you go look for some nice soft, dry weed stalks and strips of soft
bark, and moss and any other soft, tough material that you can find.
Just get busy and don't stop to talk.”
Of course Whitefoot did as he was told. He ran down to the ground
and began to hunt for the things Mrs. Whitefoot wanted. He was very
particular about it. He still didn't think much of her idea of making
over that old home of Melody's, but if she would do it, he meant that
she should have the very best of materials to do it with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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