TIMOTHY TIPTOES GOES TO THE SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 182, 3 August 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

TIMOTHY TIPTOES GOES TO THE SEA.

As summer went on it began to be very hot down at the bottom of tlie garden, where the Mouse family lived in a hole at the root of the hedge. Timothy Tiptoes, Mrs. Mouse's son, strolling one day on the lawn came on Sam, the 'tortoise, in "a peculiar position. He was lying at the bottom of a cardboard box on a pile of cabbage leaves. "Whatever are you doing in. there?" Timothy asked, peering over the top of the box at him. Sam took another bite of cabbage and munched it. When lie had finished lie said, "This is me packed up to go to the seaside along with the family." "That's an idea," said Timothy, and promptly rushed home to discuss it with his mother. "Well, if everyone eise is going, there is no reason why we shouldn't go, too," Mrs. Mouse remarked, and she began to pack at once. There were the sheets Mrs. Spider had spun for them to be put in one box, and Timothy's school books in another, and each of the family carried a little case besides. When the people to whom the garden belonged had locked up their house and called a cab, Mrs. Mouse and Maria and Timo.thy Tiptoes slipped into the cab, too, when, no one was looking, and hid themselves and their luggage in a hole in the-upholstery. Only Muffet, the cat, locked securely up /ia her travelling basket, knew they were there. Everyone wondered why Muffet was so restless, and Timothy, who loved ■to tease, made faces at her through the wicker work. When they got to the sea the Mouse family waited in their hiding place up 011 the rack behind some luggage until everyone had got out of the car-, riage. Then they slipped out too and went to Took for lodgings.

They were very difficult to find, and very dear. "You should have written to reserve rooms earlier," said the beetle, who finally rented them her hole anion;* the coarse grass at the edge of the sand. The hole was rather damp, and far too small for three people, but Mrs. Mouse was so thankful to find any place j at all that she took it at once.

In the morning they all went out for a walk by the sea. But an elderly gentleman nearly tramped on Maria, and Timothy fell into the water and got his new jacket ruined. Besides, there were too many large dogs racing about for them to take any pleasure in the walk. So .they went home, and Timothy went to„bed till his clothes dried. But he slipped out again when his mother was out buying things for supper, because he .knew the shore would be nearly empty now that it was dark, and he wanted to explore it.

He felt his way cautiously round the sand hills, and was just making for a pile of seaweed when a large rat passed

him, showing his teeth. Timothy was so frightened he scuttled home at onqe, and listened meekly to his mother when she scolded him for disobeying her orders. "We pack up and go home to-morrow," Mrs. Mouse said. "This is much too dangerous a place to stay in." The garden looked so quiet and homelike when they got back to it finally. Mrs. Mouse set to work at once unpacking the sheets and making up the beds. Timothy went for a walk, glad that Mutfet was away at the seaside and could not pounce out on him; and almost the tfrst thing he saw, to his surprise, was Sam, the tortoise, "sitting as usual 011 a pile of old cabbage leaves, with a bit of one sticking out of his mouth. * "How on earth did you get here"?" he asked. "I never went," answered Sam, "I just climbed out of the box and buried myself .before they came to collect inc. Travelling never suited me much," and he went 011 munching his cabbage.