There was a little hole at the bottom of
the tree and into it Fairy Fluffikins crept, leaving the mouse
outside in the moonlight. Presently she heard a gruff voice in the
tree saying -
"I smell mouse, I smell mouse." Then there was a swoop of wings,
and Fairy Fluffikins promptly drew the mouse into the little hole
and stuffed its tail into her mouth so that she might not be heard
laughing; and the gruff voice said angrily -
"Where's that mouse gone? I smelt mouse, I know I smelt mouse!"
She grew tired of this game after a few times, so she left the
mouse in the hole and crept away to a new one. She really was a
naughty fairy. She blew on the buttercups so that they thought the
morning breeze had come to wake them up, and opened their cups in a
great hurry. She buzzed outside the clover and made it talk in its
sleep, so that it said in a cross, sleepy voice--"Go away, you
stupid busy bee, and don't wake me up in the middle of the night."
She pulled the tail of the nightingale who was singing to his lady-
love in the hawthorn bush, and he lost his place in his song and
nearly tumbled over backwards into the garden. Then to her joy she
met an elderly, domestic puss taking an evening walk with a view to
field-mice.
Here was sport. Fluffikins hid in the grass and squeaked; and when
the elderly cat came tearing up she pulled his whiskers and flew
away (I forgot to tell you that she had little, soft wings), and
the elderly cat jumped and said -
"Mouse-traps and mince-meat! Fancy a cat of my age and experience
taking a bat for a mouse! But by my claws I heard a mouse's
squeak.
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