o observing his little pet; and presently he said
quietly, "Miss Puff, dear, the sun is too hot for you. Shall Tomty give
you a ride on his shoulder, and we'll find Mrs. Posset?"

[Illustration]

"Yes, please, Tomty!" said Puff, wearily; "I am so _very_ tired, though
I don't know why I should be."

The other mice clustered round their sister, and kissed and patted her.
They saw that Tomty looked anxious, and when he had carried Puff up to
the house in his arms, they soon followed, taking Peepsy and the dolls
with them. The three dogs only remained under the cotton-wool tree,
discussing the party very gravely, and wondering why it was that human
beings never cared to gnaw bones. And so, rather sadly, ended Peepsy's
birthday party.

[Illustration]

I jumped on the back of a dragon-fly,
And flew and flew till I reached the sky.

I pulled down a cloud that was hiding the blue,
And all the wee stars came tumbling through.

They tumbled down and they tumbled round,
And turned into flowers as they touched the ground.

So come with me, little children, come,
And down in the meadow I'll pick you some.

CHAPTER XII.

SICKNESS IN THE MOUSE-TRAP.

I was very anxious about my little Puff, though I had so much to attend
to during the rest of that afternoon, that I could not even look in my
glass to see how things were going at the Mouse-trap. A young and giddy
Comet had got his tail twisted round one of my mountain-peaks, and could
not disentangle it, and this was a pretty piece of work, as you may
imagine. He wriggled and flounced about in a truly disgraceful manner,
and it was only by making Bmfkgth bite his nose _very_ hard indeed that
I was enabled to get him free, and send him off to his grandmother with
a good scolding. (A comet cannot move his tail when his nose is bitten.
This is a fact not generally known on the earth.) But late in the
evening, when I knew it was sleepy-time for all the little people down
below, I mounted my faithful Flash, and flew down to see how my mice in
general, and my Puffy mouse in particular, were doing.

I found the aspect of the nursery somewhat changed. Downy's crib was
gone, and Puff was alone in the large bed. Uncle Jack was leaning over
her, listening to her heavy breathing, and beside the bed sat Mrs.
Posset, in a huge wrapper and a night-cap, evidently prepared to sit up
all night. As I ca