"I have not used it since the day we visited Cousin Debbie
Field-Mouse," she remembered. "That naughty Baby Squealer must have
chewed a hole in it on the way home. Please bring a needle and thread
and mend it for me, Silvy."

"There is no thread, Mammy. I used the last needleful yesterday
sewing patchwork."

"Dear me, I shall have to get some," sighed Mother Graymouse. "I have
a whole paper of needles, but they are useless without thread."

"I saw Ruth Giant making a doll's dress in the play-room," lisped
Tiny, "and she had a nice, new spool of white cotton. I didn't go in,
Mammy, truly I didn't. Teenty and I were peeping through the littlest
hole."

When Mother Graymouse had gone, Silver Ears was eager for another
adventure.

"We need that nice new spool of thread," she argued, "and I mean to
get it. No, Buster, you are too fat to run fast, and Limpy-toes is
lame. I shall not let the twins venture, for old Tom is often in the
play-room. So I must go myself."

Away she skipped, before cautious Limpy-toes could say no. Pretty
soon she slipped through the tiniest hole, laughing gleefully. She
held a long white thread in her mouth.

"Hurry and bring the empty spool," she cried. "I fooled old Tom that