ner.

When she got back to the parlour, she heard some one coughing in a fat
voice; and there sat Mr. Jackson himself!

He was sitting all over a small rocking-chair, twiddling his thumbs and
smiling, with his feet on the fender.

He lived in a drain below the hedge, in a very dirty wet ditch.

[Illustration: Mr. Jackson]

[Illustration: Sitting and dripping]

"How do you do, Mr. Jackson? Deary me, you have got very wet!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! I'll sit awhile and
dry myself," said Mr. Jackson.

He sat and smiled, and the water dripped off his coat tails. Mrs.
Tittlemouse went round with a mop.

He sat such a while that he had to be asked if he would take some
dinner?

First she offered him cherry-stones. "Thank you, thank you, Mrs.
Tittlemouse! No teeth, no teeth, no teeth!" said Mr. Jackson.

He opened his mouth most unnecessarily wide; he certainly had not a
tooth in his head.

[Illustration: Feeding Mr. Jackson]

[Illustration: Thistledown]

Then she offered him thistle-down seed--"Tiddly, widdly, widdly! Pouff,
pouff, puff!" said Mr. Jackson. He blew the thistle-down all over the
room.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! Now what I
really--_really_ should like--would be a little dish of honey!"

"I am afraid I have not got any, Mr. Jackson," said Mrs. Tittlemouse.

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse!" said the smiling Mr.
Jackson, "I can _smell_ it; that is why I came to call."

Mr. Jackson rose ponderously from the table, and began to look into the
cupboards.

Mrs. Tittlemouse followed him with a dish-cloth, to wipe his large wet
footmarks off the parlour floor.

[Illustration: Wiping up footmarks]

[Illustration: Walking down the passage]

When he had convinced himself that there was no honey in the cupboards,
he began to walk down the passage.

"Indeed, indeed, you will stick fast, Mr. Jackson!"

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse!"

First he squeezed into the pantry.

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly? no honey? no honey, Mrs. Tittlemouse?"

There were three creepy-crawly people hiding in the plate-rack. Two of
them got away; but the littlest one he caught.

[Illustration: Creepy-crawly people]

[Illustration: Butterfly tasting the sugar]

Then he squeezed into the larder. Miss Butterfly was tasting the sugar;
but she flew away out of the window.

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse; you seem to have plenty of
vis