white rabbit had so many scruples that sometimes he could not sleep. he awoke one night and came over to gray mouse’s bed and pulled at the covers.
“gray mouse,” he whispered, “i have a scruple, and it keeps me awake. i am afraid that it would not be right for you to go to the man’s house to-night just because there has been a party, and there are so many good things lying around within reach.”
“who said anything about cake?” yawned gray mouse, and he rolled over as if he were going to sleep again.
“gray mouse,” called white rabbit, “i thought that i ought to ask you. do you think it would be wrong if i went along with you and just took a look into the cellar to see if that careless cook had forgotten to put away the carrots?”
“certainly not,” answered gray mouse, scrambling out of bed. “even if you should make a mistake and eat some carrots, it would be all right, because it would teach that cook to be careful. i heard the man’s wife tell her only the other day that she was the most careless cook they had had for a week. if i should find some cake, it would be well for me to eat as much of it as i can, so as to keep the man’s children from making themselves ill.”
so gray mouse and white rabbit hurried out from under the barn floor and went to the cellar of the man’s house, laughing and jumping.
“what a pretty, little house,” said gray mouse, for in the centre of the cellar floor was a little wire box with a funny door.
gray mouse and white rabbit walked all around it.
“why,” said gray mouse, “it has cheese inside of it. put in your paw, white rabbit, and pull out that fine supper for me.”
“no, thank you,” answered white rabbit, “i have such a scruple. that is toasted cheese inside of the little house, and toasted cheese is what men call welsh rabbit. i will let you know, gray mouse, that i am no cannibal. the door is open. why don’t you go in and get the cheese yourself?”
“you are not very obliging, white rabbit,” replied gray mouse, “but since you are so mean i think that i will get it myself.”
so gray mouse walked into the wire house and tried to carry away the cheese which was fastened on a little rod. there was a click and the door of the wire house closed behind gray mouse with a snap. gray mouse was in a trap which the man had set for him.
“help me out, white rabbit,” shrieked gray mouse. “your jaws are larger than mine. bite a hole in the side of this house so i can come out!”
white rabbit had chewed carrots and turnips and soft things all his life, and it only set his teeth on edge when he tried to cut a way for gray mouse out of the little wire house.
“scat b-r-r-r,” came a noise, and old green eyes, the cat, sprang from out behind a tub. white rabbit jumped out of reach.
“ugh!” meowed green eyes to gray mouse, “i’ve got a thief and i’m going to eat him.”
green eyes tried as hard as he could to get his paws through the cage. one of his claws caught gray mouse in the side and made the blood come. green eyes became very angry when he saw that he could not reach gray mouse. he struck the trap with his claws. he picked it up and gave it a good shaking. he lifted it over his head and threw it down on the floor as hard as he could. the trap rolled over and over and at last rested bottom side up. that made the door, which had been closed all this time, fall back. when gray mouse saw that the door was open all he had to do was to jump right out of the trap. he scuttled out of that cellar as fast as he could and up at the top of the steps he met white rabbit.
[58]
“it was very warm down there,” said white rabbit, as he saw gray mouse, “and you know that my fur is so thick that i did not feel like staying down there any longer. it was very bright of you to get out of that trap.”
then white rabbit and gray mouse went away to the barn laughing and chuckling to themselves. they went back to the house the next night.
“now, then,” said white rabbit, “you go into the trap, gray mouse, and i will pretend that i am the cat.”
gray mouse went into the trap and helped himself to the cheese, and when the door snapped he only laughed. then white rabbit turned the cage over and the door fell back and gray mouse crawled out again.
“that is very fine,” said white rabbit. “if it had not been for my cheese scruple it would never have happened. if i had put my paw in there i could not have reached the cheese, and besides that, you would not have had nearly so much fun.”
gray mouse and white rabbit went every night and got all the cheese in that trap and in all the traps around the house. gray mouse took home so much cheese that he did not know what to do with it, and white rabbit feasted on carrots. they paid no attention to green eyes at all. whenever the cat came after gray mouse, that saucy animal would get himself caught in a trap and laugh at the cat. gray mouse and white rabbit grew bigger and stronger every day, and they could run so fast that the cat could never catch them.
