image: 08_pigeon.jpg
image: 08_pigeon.jpg
"You surprise me," said the rat. "One hears such tales of Miss Patty Grey-Fur that I did not believe she would have given you anything. Well, you can't go any farther tonight, for it is getting dark, so if you will spend the night with me I shall be very happy."
"And I must be going," said the pigeon. And though Fuzz and Buzz begged him to eat some of their corn before he went, he would not take a single grain, and after saying good-bye he spread his wings and flew away back to the barn.
Then the rat took Fuzz and Buzz down to his hole, and his wife was very kind to them. And when the two rats saw the piece of tallow-candle which Fuzz and Buzz had brought for them, their sharp black eyes shone with pleasure, and while Fuzz and Buzz ate a few grains of corn for their supper, the two rats ate the tallow-candle, and said that they had not enjoyed anything so much for a long time.
When they awoke in the morning they found that the stream was frozen quite hard. The rat said he would get a big dock-leaf, and that they should sit on it with their bag, while he would pull them over the ice. It did not take the rat very long to find a big strong dock-leaf, and a few minutes afterwards Fuzz and Buzz were sitting on it, and were gliding over the firm ice even faster than they had sailed down the stream two days before.
The rat was very strong, he never seemed to want to stop for breath, but, with the stalk of the dock-leaf held firmly in his mouth, he ran on and on the whole day long, until at last he reached the spot near which the Brownie family lived.
There the rat said good-bye to them, and taking a little run to give himself a good start, he put his feet together and slid away down the stream at a rate which soon took him out of sight.
Then Fuzz and Buzz, dragging the heavy bag of corn after them, went home as fast as they could.
Mr. and Mrs. Brownie were very glad to get their two children safely back again. And when they saw what a lot of corn Fuzz and Buzz had brought back with them, they knew that they now had more than enough food to last them until the spring came.
And during the long winter evenings, when the wind was blowing and the snow was falling, Fuzz and Buzz used to sit in their warm, cosy nest, and talk about all they had seen and done when they went down to the barn to fetch the corn.
Transcriber's Notes:The following misprint has been corrected:[they had to go whereever] —>[they had to go wherever]A Contents-list has been added for the convenience of the reader.
The following misprint has been corrected:[they had to go whereever] —>[they had to go wherever]A Contents-list has been added for the convenience of the reader.