t Tim PORTLAND OREGON JOURNAL. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, W
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A . VI' I III 111 H if I 7 I II ; )M I I f . I 1 V 17 1 i 1 I f I I I It. f 7 TV M
A MOUSE WITH WINGS
; T By M. BOWLEY
HE Grand Ducheii walked in th palace .gar
dens. -By her aide was. the stately head nurse;
for the Grand Duchess was young. Behind her
were two pages, -who held up her train of cloth-r
The Grand . Duchess kicked up the stones, now and
then with the toe" of a daintily pointed shoe, and pres-
ently she sighed a very big sigh. . -.
" I amlio tired of the same walk every day and every ...
dayshe said. . M I mean to go this minute right out
into the fields and pick flowers, dear little common
flowers, on the hill over the stream." "
"Impossible, your Royal Highness I " cried the old
nurse, quite shocked.
"By no means," replied the Duchess, wilfully. "Give
, me my train," said she, turning to the boys. " 1 will
carry it. You may go."
Then she ran to the great gates. With some diffi
, culty she pushed one open and passed out The nurse,
panting and groaning, followed her. '
The Duchess scampered about joyfully. She was in
convenienced by her train, it was so heavy; but she
gathered the daisies and put them in her hair, she sang
' song) and called to the birds, and talked to the sheep
. cropping the grass.
The Duchess crossed the stream by the plank. The .
danger, so new, delighted her. She laughed and clapped
her hands as the board creaked under the weight of the
. old nurse.
"I'll rest right here in the shade," said the Grand
JDucheu 4w;csenUjrw Jj&JLm;MA&J&mjri,,M&
she was seating herself on a large stone, when some
thing ran from underneath it across her foot
"Oh, the sweet brown mouse!" she cried. She fell
upon her knees to catch it, but at the same moment a
hand as brown as the mouse came from beside a bush
near, and 4he mouse ran into the hand.
7"; The face of a shepherd boy peeped over. "That's my
mouse," he said. : .
The Grand Duchess sat up on the ground, and looked
back at him.
"I want it to be mine," she answered.
"Give it to her Royal Highness immediately," com
manded the nurse.. , " You are honored that she should
care to have it. i'' 'v. v .""' .,
But the shepherd boy only repeated, "It's my mouse."
! The eyes of the Grand Duchess opened very widely.
' They were very blue eyes, and her parted lips were as
rosy as the wild cherries above her head.
"1 like you, you funny shepherd coy she said, after
a long pause. "But I want. that dear brown mouse. I
will give you my white mouse for it - Mine has wings."
; ' It was the turn of the shepherd boy to open his eyes. -
"fin Karlr anA Innlr, tnr mv tnnttsm." tairl thm. flratift .
s Duchess to the nurse.- "I shall stay here and play with
this nice boy." - S
"But, your. Royal Highness protested the nurse,
.' "you 1 surely will not give the Winged Mouse to.' a
country lad! Besides, I cannot leave you here."
"I will take care of her," said the shepherd boy, with .
. lordly, air. ; Ho was about a year older than the
'..Duchess. '" . 'i.
"Go this minute!" said she, getting up to stamp her
foot imperiously. ' ...
The nurse turned away grumbling and ' muttering
Little did the Duchess think how long it would be be
fore she saw her nurse again. "
She watched her out of sight She had a naughty
" smile in her blue eyes, and the simple shepherd boy
stared as she reached for the embroidered pocket that
hung by her side, and took from it a snow-white mouse,
. which she held out to him m the pink palm of her hand.
ii wm oe sucn run xo nave no one 10 trouoie us. i
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have the brown one."
The shepherd boy touched the delicate thing it was
a gift of her fairy godmother to the Grand Duchess
and he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful
and to much to be desired.
The Duchess showed him Its wonderful wings. They
hut neatly down against its sides like closed fans.
' WtlM thrv ttrara crr4 iMif h tViniti nnVA if
were a large white flower.
He took it tenderly, and pressed it lovingly to bis
tanned cheek, while he handed her the little field-mouse.
As they played, the shepherd boy told her he lived
with his stepmother in a small cottage near the edge of
the town. He kept the sheep of any of the neighboring
farmers who would hire him.
He dared not let his stepmother see his new'treasure,
for she -was a cruel witch woman. So they arranged
to make a little nest for it. warm and mn with auuim.
among the tree roots, where a stone was. to fit in the
opening and keep it safely. They were so busy they did
not notice the sound of footsteps approaching; but they
looked no when a shadow fell aerexi them. ntvino- to
see the nurse. .
" The shepherd boy turned pale. Fingers like claws
pressed his shoulder,' an d he exclaimed, " Stepmother I "
She snatched tie white mouse from him, thrust it
inside the bosom of her dress, seized wrist of. the
Grand Duchess and of the boy, and dragged them away -through
the wood.- '
Then the Grind Duchess screamed and bitterly rt
petrted of her deceit, but it was too late. ,
On and on they went The Docbcss cried until she
had r more tears left, and by night-time the party
rt ached a curious hut deep in the fsrest
The hut was round like beeWve. It hsd re roora
'on the ground and two abovet The stepmother drove
' the' boy and the Grand Duchess up the ladder, and
- Jocked each into a tiny' loft . : '
'. Down below, after lighting a small lamp, the woman
took out the Mouse with Wings." The little black eyes
looked up at her. " She chuckled to it and atroked it
with a horny finger. Then she fetched some seed, which
she scattered round the mouse. ' " ,f ,: : ' , ;
It was hungry and took up the grain in wee white
paws. The woman watched it greedily. 1 i
! She knew what, the Grand Duchess had not thought
of mentioning. This fairy, mous ate "only golden grain,
and every seed it touched turned into purest gold.
,She let it eat as long as it:would then" she spread
grain before it while it ran about the table. She had
tied a string round its body so that it cduld not open
its wings. .. . .. t
Until the mouse grew sleepy she strewed the seed;
when it would run no longer she put it into a strong
box which had a secret fastening, and she placed the
box upon a high shelf.
Next she picked over every grain upon the wooden
table, sorting out the ones the mouse's little feet had
pressed. These she dropped into a bag; and fhe bag she
covered up in a hoi low -place she had scraped by the
hearth. r ' .... ; ii
Not until then did she cook her supper.
The smell of it went up through the rafters into the
while she was away, , the stepmother had shut the
, Winged Mouse into the cupboard, with plenty of seed '
about it The lock was strong, she had taken the key
with ner, ana there were no screws visible.
; Then the Grand Duchess thought of a plan. They
still bad the field-mouse. About that the Witch Woman
had never troubled herself. -... , 4
The brown mouse should tmaw a ij0iei
Thevvput it to the corner of the cupboard, where it
could hear the white mouse running about inside. ,
.-It listened, then called in little squeaks. ...
' t ' The fairy mouse answered, and each began to nibble,
.x)ne inside and one outside. " , .
Their tiny teeth made terribly slow , progress. The
shepherd boy helped with, his broken knife, but the
.darkness was coming on by the time a small white nose
appeared. The brown mouse squeaked more loudly and
' worked harder. But alas ! they had waited too long.
The cottage door behind them opened suddenly. The
Witch Woman had returned sooner than they had ex
pected. She sprang forward with a cry of rage when
he saw them.
The Grand Duchess screamed and slipped by her out
through the doorway, the shepherd boy following. He
caught her hand; and "they ran like hares not before
they had seen,, though, that the Winged Mouse had
flown out in front of them. The string round its body
had been scraped off as it pressed) through the hole,
and, frightened by the confusion, it had spread its wings
to escape.
, The Witch Woman saw it, too-saw it go through the
open door. Wildly she strained her eyes seeking it
And in the darkness near the hut something white glim
mered. So it came about in this way that the Witch
Woman met her end ; for right into the pond she fell,
and there was drowned, with a white water-lily clutched
in her hand. She had mistaken it for the mouse.
The fugitives pressed on, not knowing what had hap
pened. Then, in the faint light of the sunrise, like a great
white flower on a tree,, the Winged Mouse sat before
them.
The shepherd boy whistled, and the Grand Duchess
called coaxingly to it; but it kept out of their reach,
every time they came near flying always a little farther.
'THE GKAITO DUCHESS WALKED IN THE PALACE GARDENS
rooms above, and the Grand Duchess began to. cry
afresh, from hunger. The shepherd boy did not cry
he was accustomed to being hungry.
When the morning came, the Grand Duchess found
that her troubles were only beginning.
The shepherd boy was used to work as well as to
hunger, but the Grand Duchess wept again and again
over all the hard tasks set for her by the cruel step
mother. She dared not disobey. In this way weeks
passed by. The Grand Duchess scrubbed the stone
floor and did nearly all the work of the house. The
shepherd boy was sent out to gather sticks for the fire
and berries for t ooking. The Duchess learned to make
these into pies, while ail the time the Witch Woman sat
by the fire, with the train she had cut from the Duchess's
frock over her shoulders for a shawl. She did nothing
except feed the white mouse every day, and collect the
golden grain.
Since she was always there, the Grand Duchess and
the shepherd boy rarely met alone. But now and then,
when the Duchess went to the pond to fill her pail with
water, she would meet him with his bundles of sticks.
Then her chin would go up, and she never failed to say
contemptuously:
' " You who promised to take care of me 1"
And the shepherd boy would creep to his own heap
of hay at night, and think and think until morning
dawned. ,
He dared not leave her alone in the clutches of his
stepmother while he ran away to tell what had become
' of her, for his absence would so soon be discovered.
Before he or her friends could return, she afid the Witch
Woman would have disappeared. He must not risk los
ing sight of her, for then the harm would be worse than
ever. -. . ' - . .
All this thne no rumor came to them of the commo
tion caused by the loss of the Grand Duchess.
The stepmother was aware of it and of the great re
ward offered to any one who should bring back the
missing child. ,, .
But she cared nothing for that Had' she not the
fairy mouse, and many a bag of golden treasure hidden
by the hearth? Plainly it was not to her Interest, for
many reasons, to let any one know what had happened.
One afternoon, when the summer wasjiearfy over, she
ordered them into their lofts. The shepherd boy, in the
front loft, watched eagerly from the small window when
he heard the door below shut and that also locked. He
saw his stepmother, muffled in her cloak, with a bag in
her hand, starting off in the direction of the distant
town, and he guessed she was going to enjoy herself
and to buy provisions of which they were in need.
" This is the chance I have waited for," whispered he,
'In i moment he had lifted'the trap-door, for the ,
screws had been already loosened. He called softly to
the Grand Duchess, and, with a broken knife which be
succeeded in pushing through to her, under his direc
tions she finished getting out the crews of her door,
which were also loose. Then he forced "A -epe n
helped her down the ladder.
" " I cannot leave my moose," said he.
But trr get the ntowc pro it f a modi more 'dlfkclt -
mstter than escaping from the loft
For greater safety, tad o that it snisht not be i
And so they followed, trying to catch it all that day
and part of the next day. And then the shepherd boy
looked round about, and turned suddenly to the Grand
Duchess. ' ' .
She was looking too.
There, across the fields, rose the towers of her palace.
The Winged Mouse had brought them straight home.
.And the brown mouse had followed, for in front of
them it sat on a stone the very stone under which it
had been on the day when the Grand Duchess first met
the shepherd boy. There, too, was the stream, with the
plank across it, and the daisies speckled the grass just
as they had done so many months ago.
The Grand Duchess and the shepherd boy ran again,
as fast as when the Witch Woman was .behind them.
At the gates' stood the old head nurse, quite thin and
pale now, shading her eyes with her hand while she
gazed over the fields toward the hills where .the wild
flowers grew.
The Grand Duchess forgot all her dignity. Sh
rushed into her nurse's arms.
In ten minutes all the bells in the city rang out so
that no one could hear himself speak for the noise,
and in ten minutes more every house had a flag waving
from its roof and bright draperies flung out of the
windows.
The Grand Duchess and the shepherd boy were never
tired of talking over their adventures. They often met
by the golden cage where the two mice lived. He wa
made Keeper of the Royal Flocks. Not that there was
any need for him to work harder than he wished, for
he was well known to be a special favorite and play
fellow of the Grand Duchess, and, besides that, to him
belonged that pet of the palace, the Mouse with Wings.
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