gray mouse was sitting on his front porch one afternoon, when he heard a rumble of wheels and a coach stopped before the door. it was the funniest coach you ever saw, and it was drawn by four tumblebugs all covered with silver harness. two grasshoppers sat on the box. one of them jumped down and opened the door. then a big, fat mouse, all dressed up and carrying a cane with a gold head, got out and came up the steps of gray mouse’s house.

“you don’t seem to know me,” said the fat mouse as he clapped gray mouse on the back.

“your ways are familiar,” answered gray mouse, “but your face i do not remember at all.”

“why, i am your long-lost brother, church mouse,” squeaked that wealthy animal, “and i have just come back to visit all my friends and relations.”

church mouse strutted up and down the porch, whirled his cane and played with his watch chain. gray mouse was sitting in his old rocking chair and he had on his shabbiest pair of carpet slippers.

“you need not be so proud,” said gray mouse. “i remember the time when you did not have a piece of cheese with which to bless yourself. don’t put on any airs with your coach and your old tumblebugs. i have not forgotten when you lived in the church across the road, and were so poor that many is the time you were glad to come over to my poor little house for dinner.”

“you need not be cross,” replied church mouse, “i am not proud, and to-morrow i shall bring you a very large cheese.”

“i am very glad to see you,” said gray mouse, changing his manners and smiling. “now, tell me how did you get so sleek and fat?”

gray mouse brought his best easy chair out on the porch, and church mouse sat down in it and crossed his hands over his stomach.

“well, i was so poor,” began church mouse, “that many is the time i have gnawed the backs of hymn books. one day i was wondering how i was going to get along, and decided to be a book agent. so i got hedge hog, who is clever with quills, to write a book for me, called ‘the true history of the great which what.’ then i started out to sell it.

[76]

yellow lion inquires if there is anything in the book about him.

[77]

“well, it was very hard work at first. cochin, the chicken, slammed the door of his coop right in my face. chip munk chased me off his door mat, snapping turtle called me names and bit off the end of my tail. then i saw the adder and i said just as politely as i could: ‘mr. adder, i have here the true history of the great which what.’

“‘what witch?’ asked adder, who was as deaf as anything. he had an ear trumpet, but i do not believe that the trumpet helped him to hear any better.

“‘no witch,’ i answered.

“‘norwich is in connecticut,’ answered adder. ‘that is where i bought my ear trumpet.’

“‘i said which what,’ said i.

“‘no,’ replied the adder, ‘i do not need any dried apples to-day.’

“i was so angry that i cried. i went to the wheat bin out in deacon jones’ barn and there i met my old friend, weevil.

“‘of course,’ said weevil, when i told him about my bad luck, ‘you don’t sell books here because everybody is so intelligent. you come with me to asia and you will do far better.’

“so i stayed in the bin with weevil. in a day or two, the wheat was put in a wagon and taken to the railroad station. before long it arrived in new york. then it was thrown down hill into a ship and for days and days after that weevil and i knew nothing except the splash of waters and the tip, tip of that great ship.

[78]

“we reached the place called asia. as soon as i got a chance i said good-by to weevil and walked until i was in the jungle. when you sell books it is a good thing to know somebody who is big. weevil told me to go the first thing and see yellow lion. i heard yellow lion roaring among the trees and i walked up to where he was sitting.

“‘yellow lion,’ i said very politely, ‘yellow lion, won’t you please buy my book?’

“‘has it got anything about me in it?’ asked yellow lion.

“‘no,’ i answered.

“‘well, then, i have no time to talk to little animals like you,’ said yellow lion. ‘you will oblige me by getting out of my lair, or i shall step all over you.’

“‘very well,’ i answered; ‘i do not wish to crowd you, yellow lion; and i am not of a revengeful nature.’ so i stood up straight, and looked very proud and angry.

“two days after that i was walking through the jungle when i heard a loud noise. i peeped through the bushes and there i saw yellow lion lying under a hammock.

“‘good morning,’ i said. ‘seeing that you are so comfortable in your nice, new hammock, i thought i would just come and say how d’ye do.’

“‘you mean, little animal!’ roared yellow lion, ‘don’t you see that the hunters have caught me in a net?’

“‘it is too bad,’ i answered, ‘that you are in a net, but it is still worse to be in the jungle without a copy of “the true history of the great which what.” in the little book which i hold in my hand is told why the what is which and what the what what said to the which who of the when did.’

[80]

“‘stop, stop!’ roared yellow lion.

“‘here is a chapter,’ said i, ‘which tells how a lion got caught in a net and how a poor, little mouse in return for a kindness cut the net with his sharp teeth and set the lion free.’

“‘what kindness?’ asked yellow lion.

“‘all that the lion did,’ i answered, ‘was to buy a book which the mouse was selling.’

“‘i’ll take that book,’ said yellow lion. ‘i’ll take a hundred of them—and when i get out i’ll make everybody else buy one.’

“‘all right, yellow lion,’ said i.

“then i gnawed the net, and yellow lion got away. the king of beasts kept his word. i sold more than a million copies of the book from that one sample, for yellow lion told all the beasts that they must buy. that is how i became so rich.”

“you are certainly a clever little animal,” said gray mouse, when church mouse had finished the story. “i am very proud of my rich brother.”

[81]