The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse - Thornton W. Burgess (good fiction books to read txt) 📗
- Author: Thornton W. Burgess
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So he trotted along his private little path, his ears wide open, and his eyes wide open, and his little nose carefully testing every Merry Little Breeze who happened along for any scent of danger which it might carry. Most of all he depended upon his ears, for the grass was so tall that he couldn’t see over it, even when he sat up. He had gone only a little way when he thought he heard a queer rustling behind him. He stopped to listen. There it was again, and it certainly was right in the path behind him! He didn’t need to be told who was making it. There was only one who could make such a sound as that—Mr. Blacksnake.
Now Danny can run very fast along his private little paths, but he knew that Mr. Blacksnake could run faster. “If my legs can’t save me, my wits must,” thought Danny as he started to run as fast as ever he could. “I must reach that fallen old hollow fence-post.”
He was almost out of breath when he reached the post and scurried into the open end. He knew by the sound of the rustling that Mr. Blacksnake was right at his heels. Now the old post was hollow its whole length, but half-way there was an old knot-hole just big enough for Danny to squeeze through. Mr. Blacksnake didn’t know anything about that hole, and because it was dark inside the old post, he didn’t see Danny pop through it. Danny ran back along the top of the log and was just in time to see the tip of Mr. Blacksnake’s tail disappear inside. Then what do you think Danny did? Why, he followed Mr. Blacksnake right into the old post, but in doing it he didn’t make the least little bit of noise.
Mr. Blacksnake kept right on through the old post and out the other end, for he was sure that that was the way Danny had gone. He kept right on along the little path. Now Danny knew that he wouldn’t go very far before he found out that he had been fooled, and of course he would come back. So Danny waited only long enough to get his breath and then ran back along the path to where another little path branched off. For just a minute he paused.
“If Mr. Blacksnake follows me, he will be sure to think that of course I have taken this other little path,” thought Danny, “so I won’t do it.”
Then he ran harder than ever, until he came to a place where two little paths branched off, one to the right and one to the left. He took the latter and scampered on, sure that by this time Mr. Blacksnake would be so badly fooled that he would give up the chase. And Danny was right.
said Danny, as he trotted on his way for the grass-seed he liked so well. “I felt it in my bones that this would be an exciting day. I wonder what next.”
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT TO DANNY MEADOW MOUSE
DANNY is so used to narrow escapes that he doesn’t waste any time thinking about them. He didn’t this time. “He who tries to look two ways at once is pretty sure to see nothing,” says Danny, and he knew that if he thought too much about the things that had already happened, he couldn’t keep a sharp watch for the things that might happen.
Nothing more happened as he hurried along his private little path to the edge of a great patch of grass so short that he couldn’t hide under it. He had got to cross this, and all the way he would be in plain sight of any one who happened to be near. Very cautiously he peeped out and looked this way and looked that way, not forgetting to look up in the sky. He could see no one anywhere. Drawing a long breath, Danny started across the open place as fast as his short legs could take him.
Now all the time, Redtail the Hawk had been sitting in a tree some distance away, sitting so still that he looked like a part of the tree itself. That is why Danny hadn’t seen him. But Redtail saw Danny the instant he started across the open place, for Redtail’s eyes are very keen, and he can see a great distance. With a satisfied chuckle, he spread his broad wings and started after Danny.
Just about half-way to the safety of the long grass on the other side, Danny gave a hurried look behind him, and his heart seemed to jump right into his mouth, for there was Redtail with his cruel claws already set to seize him! Danny gave a frightened squeak, for he thought that surely this time he would be caught. But he didn’t mean to give up without trying to escape. Three jumps ahead of him was a queer looking thing. He didn’t know what it was, but if there was a hole in it he might yet fool Redtail.
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