Like Johnny Chuck he gets very fat before going to
sleep. Now, Nimbleheels, show us how you can jump."
Nimbleheels hopped down from the log on which he had been sitting
and at once shot into the air in such a high, long, beautiful jump
that everybody exclaimed. This way and that way he went in great
leaps. It was truly wonderful.
"That long tail is what balances him," explained Old Mother Nature.
"If he should lose it he would simply turn over and over and never
know where or how he was going to land. His jumping is done only
in times of danger. When he is not alarmed he runs about on the
ground like the rest of the Mouse family. This is all for to-day.
To-morrow I will tell you still more about the Mouse family."
CHAPTER XVII Three Little Redcoats and Some Others
With Whitefoot the Wood Mouse, Danny Meadow Mouse and Nimbleheels
the Jumping Mouse attending school, the Mouse family was well
represented, but when school opened the morning after Nimbleheels
had made his sudden and startling appearance, there was still
another present. It was Piney the Pine Mouse. Whitefoot, who
knew him, had hunted him up and brought him along.
"I thought you wouldn't mind if Piney came," explained Whitefoot.
"I'm glad he has come," replied Old Mother Nature. "It is much
better to see a thing than merely to be told about it, and now you
have a chance to see for yourselves the differences between two
cousins very closely related, Danny Meadow Mouse and Piney the
Pine Mouse.
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