CHAPTER IV

MOTHER GRAYMOUSE KEEPS SCHOOL

Silver Ears was very angry and excited one morning when she returned
from a visit to the play-room. Her eyes were pink and swollen from
crying as she sat beside Squealer in the chimney corner.

"She is a hateful old Norah, Mammy," she burst out at last. "Ruth
Giant wants me to be her little pet mouse. I heard her tell Robert.
And she tossed me the nicest bit of cake I ever tasted. It was
frosted and stuffed with strawberry jam.

"Then that horrid old Norah Maid came in and shoo-ed me with her
broom. I hid under the doll's bed. You wouldn't believe the bad
things that freckly-faced Norah said. She told Ruth Giant that she
wasn't going to have nasty little mice around, running up her skirts,
not if she knew it. She stuck her snubby nose up in the air and said
it seemed as if the room smelled mousey. Then when I started to run
home, because I couldn't listen to such talk a minute longer, she
cried--'There he goes now, Miss Ruth! The nasty, thieving, little
beast! If there's a creature I can't abide, it's a mouse, to be
sure!'

"I'm not a nasty little beast, am I, Mammy? I have a nice warm bath
every Saturday night."

"Every Saturday night, the whole six of you," agreed Mother Graymouse
wagging her head proudly. "And what could a body ask more of a neat
mother mouse with a big family?"