get the terrible fright I was in the first time I
ventured to leave the nest, and clamber down the thistle-stalk to the
ground! My brothers and sisters had been down the day before, and
laughed at my timidity; and then they boasted that they had scrambled
up the bank, and looked through the hedge, into the wheat-field, where
they had seen the reapers at work; and they told me that they had been
terribly frightened by the barking of a large dog. But Softsides said
that _he_ was not frightened a bit, and that he only came back to the
nest because he wanted his dinner; and he declared that he would fight
the dog the next time he saw him.

Then they told me that they had seen a little girl in the wheat-field,
gathering flowers, and that they had heard her sing most
divinely--something about "Trip with me," and "the moon shining
bright." And Softy said that he had learned part of the song, and that
if we would give over prating so, and would listen to him, he would
sing it as sweetly as the little girl did. So he sat up on his hinder
parts, and began, "Trip with me, trip with me," but he made such a
funny whistling noise through his long front teeth, that we all laughed
till we cried. Then brother Softsides was angry, and bit my ear till I
cried most bitterly, without laughing at all.

The next day, with the help of mamma, I managed to get down to the
ground, and to climb up the bank; and in the wheat-field was the little
girl again, singing her pretty song, and gathering wild-flowers in the
hedge. But either because she had had more practice in singing than
Softy, or because her front teeth were not so long as his, her
performance was much more pleasing, to my ears at least, and I did not
feel at all inclined to laugh at her. Presently, another little girl,
who had been all the morning gleaning, came up to her, crying, and
complaining that somebody had stolen a large bunch of wheat that she
had collected and hid in a corner of the field. Then we saw that the
young lady with the sweet voice had a sweet disposition also, for she
gave the little gleaner her last sixpence, and sent her home as happy
as a bird.

[Illustration: THE HARVEST-MICE. Page 134.]

I was dreadfully tired with this expedition, and was quite lame for
several days after, with a thorn in my left hind-foot, but at last
mamma sucked it out for me. When it got well, I took courage to leave
the nest again, and joined my brothers and sisters in their games of