"_Asking_ my pardon is one thing," Mr. Crow spluttered. "And _receiving_
it is another."

"I'm very sorry," Dickie Deer Mouse replied. "I didn't mean to frighten
you."

Mr. Crow gave a sudden hoarse _haw-haw_.

"Pooh!" he cried. "You don't think I was scared, do you?"

"You called for help," Dickie reminded him.

"Certainly I did," Mr. Crow agreed. "I wanted somebody to help you out
of my house, before I trampled on you and broke one of your legs--or
maybe two or three of 'em."

That explanation gave Dickie Deer Mouse another surprise; for he had
supposed all the time that Mr. Crow didn't know who--or what--had
awakened him.

"Oh!" he cried. "I thought that you thought I was somebody else."

Mr. Crow glared at him.

"I thought that you thought that I thought----" he squalled. He was so
angry that his tongue became sadly twisted; and he all but choked.

Meanwhile Dickie Deer Mouse waited respectfully until Mr. Crow had
recovered his speech.

"What are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Crow demanded at last.

"I thought----" Dickie began.

"There you go again!" the old gentleman interrupted him testily. "I
didn't ask you what you _thought_. I asked you what you were _doing_."

"I'm not doing anything just now," Dickie Deer Mouse faltered.

"Yes, you are!" Mr. Crow corrected him. "You're sitting on a limb of my
tree.... Get off it at once!"

So Dickie Deer Mouse moved to a more distant perch.

"Now you're sitting on another!" Mr. Crow exploded. "Get out of my tree
this instant!" It always made him ill-tempered to be awakened from a
sound sleep in the middle of the night.

Once more Dickie Deer Mouse asked his pardon.

"I was told," he explained, "that you had moved lately. And I did not
expect to find you here."

"Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I know now why you came sneaking into my house.
You'd like to live here yourself."

"Pardon me!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed with the lowest of bows. "You
are mistaken, Mr. Crow. Though your house is a fine, large one, it's
much too small to hold us both."

And whisking about, while Mr. Crow stared at him, he ran down the tall
elm as fast as he could go.

It was clear that if Mr. Crow wasn't going to move he would have to look
elsewhere for a summer home.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

IV

THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST

For a few days after his visit to Mr. Crow's elm, Dickie Deer Mouse kept
watch carefully of Mr. Crow's comings and goings. And he decid