Cheery and the Chum/Chapter 2
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P jumped Cheery. She had been sitting still for a very long time for her. "What is it? Where is it?" she asked in a breath.
Aunt Beth's eyes laughed. "You must guess what it is," she said, holding fast to Cheery's hands.
"Aa rabbit?" gasped Cheery.
"No." Aunt Beth shook her head.
"Aa guinea pig?"
"No. One more guess."
"Aa" Cheery was out of guesses, "—a baby alligator?"
Aunt Beth burst out laughing. "A pink and white baby alligator!" she cried. "No, no, honey—come and see," and she led Cheery through the long, wide, cool hall, by the broad stairway with its white balusters, and out onto the vine-covered porch at the back of the house.
Cheery looked all about, but could see nothing but a queer-looking tin box on a wooden shelf. She went up to it, and looked closer, but it was only a tin box about a foot long and six inches high, and on one end, a sort of a wire shed, and, fastened to that, a tiny wire wheel, just like the wheel on a squirrel cage, only ever and ever so much smaller, not more than three inches high.
Cheery put out her finger and turned the wheel very gently, then she looked at Aunt Beth. "It isn't a wee, wee little bit of a pink and white squirrel, is it?" she asked, with big eyes.
Aunt Beth unfastened the lid of the box, which was on hinges, and turned it back, and Cheery peered in. At first she could see nothing but a little heap of white paper scraps, but presently she thought she saw something pink in the pile of paper, and she held her breath and looked closer. Yes, it really was pink, and it shone like a tiny pink glass bead—it was an eye—it surely was an eye, and then she thought she saw a slight movement in the pile of paper. Oh, what could it be? Cheery lifted her hand, "May I—may I touch it, Aunt Beth?" she asked eagerly.
"Aren't you afraid?" asked Aunt Beth.
"Afraid!" exclaimed Cheery, "why no! If it's for me and The Chum, Love got it for us, and so there isn't anything to be afraid of." So she put out her finger very gently and touched the pile of paper just above the pink bead, and, suddenly, out jumped a tiny, tiny, wee little white mouse, with pink eyes and a pink nose, and a long, pink, waving tail.
"Oh—oh—oh!" exclaimed Cheery, clasping her hands together. "Oh, isn't he darling! Look at his teenty, weenty feet, and his pink ears and his long white whiskers! Oh, isn't he just a dear?" Whereupon Mr. Mouse sat up on his hind legs and squeezed his front paws together and sniffed and wiggled his whiskers, as much as to say:—
"How do you do? Who are you? And where did you come from? And what made you drive me out of my cozy nest?"
"Oh, look at him!—look at him!" cried Cheery. "He's shaking hands with himself just the way Uncle Rob does when he sees me and can't reach me! Isn't he the dearest thing you ever saw?"
Mr. Mouse now walked to the side of the cage, and standing up tall and thin on his hind legs, with his forepaws as high on the side of the box as he could reach, sniffed and sniffed in a most inquiring manner.
Aunt Beth broke off a tiny bit of cheese and handed it to Cheery, but just as she reached it down toward the eager little mouse, there suddenly came a tremendous scrambling in the pile of paper, which flew in every direction, and out popped another mouse; not quite so large, but, as Cheery said, twice as lively, as the first; and before she could jerk her hand away, he had jumped and seized the bit of cheese, and in a moment was over in one corner of the box, holding it up in his paws and nibbling it greedily, meanwhile keeping an eye on his brother.
Cheery burst out laughing. "Oh, you funny, funny fellow!" she cried. "Didn't he make me jump, though, when he popped out that way? And wasn't the other mousie surprised? He didn't know what became of it. Look! He's sitting up there and smelling of his paws now, as if he thought he'd let it get away from him somehow. Please give me another piece for him."
"Suppose we wait and see what he will do," said Aunt Beth.
Presently Mr. Mouse stopped smelling of his little pink fingers, and stretched himself up tall and thin again, reaching up the side of the box and sniffing eagerly; and then, as there was no more cheese in sight, he dropped upon all four feet once more; but just then he suddenly caught a whiff of the cheese over in the corner, and he turned and sat up on his hind legs, and stared at his contented brother, as much as to say: "Now, where on earth did you get that, when I thought that I was the one that had it? and where have I been all this time, anyway?"
His brother didn't pay any attention, so Mr. Mouse dropped again to his four feet, and, with his eyes on the cheese, began to creep, slowly and softly, across the cage. The other made no movement beyond the rapid working of jaws and the turning of the cheese in his paws so that he could nibble it nice and even, but he kept his eye on Mr. Mouse all the time.
When the first mouse had nearly reached his brother, Cheery clasped her hands together tightly, for she was perfectly sure, that any second he would make a sudden pounce and seize the cheese; but no, he kept on gently, until he was right in front of the eater, and then he raised up on his hind legs and began to nibble on the other side of the luncheon, holding his paws straight down in front of him like a kangaroo, and leaning forward so as to reach it without treading on his brother's toes; and the brother didn't make the least objection, but kept on nibbling and looking funny out of his round, pink eyes.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Cheery, "see how good they are to each other. His brother just did it for a joke, I know he did. He didn't want it all himself, any of the time, and he's just laughing out of the corner of his eye now, because he had so much fun. He wasn't really selfish or greedy after all, was he?"