"The waistcoat is cut out from peach-coloured satin--tambour stitch and
rose-buds in beautiful floss silk. Was I wise to entrust my last fourpence
to Simpkin? One-and-twenty button-holes of cherry-coloured twist!"

But all at once, from the dresser, there came other little noises:

_Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap tip!_

"This is passing extraordinary!" said the Tailor of Gloucester, and
turned over another tea-cup, which was upside down.

[Illustration]

Out stepped a little gentleman mouse, and made a bow to the tailor!

And then from all over the dresser came a chorus of little tappings, all
sounding together, and answering one another, like watch-beetles in an old
worm-eaten window-shutter--

_Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap tip_!

And out from under tea-cups and from under bowls and basins, stepped other
and more little mice who hopped away down off the dresser and under the
wainscot.

[Illustration]

The tailor sat down, close over the fire, lamenting--"One-and-twenty
button-holes of cherry-coloured silk! To be finished by noon of