age, though Bawly did.

"I'm going to tie your tail in a knot, hang you over the clothes line
and then throw stones at you!" went on the cruel boy. "That will teach
you to keep away from our place. We don't like mice."

Well, poor Jollie Longtail shivered and shook, and tried to get away
from that boy, but he couldn't, and then the boy began tying a knot in
the mousie's tail, so he could fasten Jollie to the clothes line in the
yard.

"Oh, this is terrible!" cried Bawly, and he forgot all about the ball
that was lying in the grass close beside him. "How sorry I am for poor
Jollie," thought Bawly.

"There's one knot!" cried the boy as he made it. "Now for another!"

Poor Jollie squirmed and wiggled, but he couldn't get away.

"Now for the last knot, and then I'll tie you on the clothes line,"
spoke the boy, twisting Jollie's tail very hard.

"Oh, if he ever gets tied on the clothes line that will be the last of
him!" thought Bawly. "I wonder how I can save him?"

Bawly thought, and thought, and thought, and finally he thought of his
bean shooter, and the beans he still had with him.

"That's the very thing!" he whispered. Then he hid down in the grass,
where the boy couldn't see him, and just as that boy was about to tie
Jollie to the line, Bawly put a bean in the shooter, put the shooter in
his mouth, puffed out his cheeks and "bango!" a bean hit the boy on the
nose!

"Ha!" cried the boy. "Who did that?" He looked all around and he
thought, maybe, it was a hailstone, but there weren't any storm clouds
in the sky. Then the boy once more started to tie Jollie to the line.

"Bungo!" went a bean on his left ear, hitting him quite hard.

"Stop that!" the boy cried, winking his eyes very fast.

"Cracko!" went a bean on his right ear, for Bawly was blowing them very
fast now.

"Oh, wait until I get hold of you, whoever you are!" shouted the boy,
looking all around, but he could see no one, for Bawly was hiding in the
grass.

"Smacko!" went a bean on the boy's nose again, and then he danced up and
down, and was so excited that he dropped poor Jollie in the soft grass,
and away the mousie scampered to where he saw Bawly hiding.

Then Bawly kindly loosened the knots in the mousie's tail, picked up the
ball, and away they both scampered back to the game, and told their
friends what had happened. And maybe Jollie wasn't thankful to Bawly!
Well, I just guess he was! And that boy was so kerslastrated, about not
be