Page:Cheery and the chum (IA cheerychum00yate).pdf/21

 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