A GBASS PLANT CAN BECOME SOMEONE 



began digging at a neighboring plant, holding up 

 the tuber in its paws and nibbling it, after which 

 the mouse crept on again. 



" To be safe, I must be a mouse," thought the 

 changeling. "Animals are a higher kind of be- 

 ing than plants, anyway. I will be a mouse." 



Instantly it became a mouse and ran off, glad 

 of the change. Now and then it would pause to 

 dig up a tuber, or would sit up on its hind feet to 

 look around on the new scenes that came into 

 view. 



" This is much more delightful than being a 

 plant and always staying in one place and never 

 seeing anything of the world," it said. 



While traveling nimbly along in this manner, 

 the mouse observed a strange white animal com- 

 ing through the air toward it, which kept drop- 

 ping down upon the ground, and after stopping 

 to eat something, it would fly on again. 



When it came near, the mouse saw that it was 

 a great white owl. At the same moment the owl 

 saw the mouse and swooped down upon it. Dart- 

 ing off, the mouse was fortunate enough to escape 

 by running into a hole made by one of its kind, 

 and the owl flew off. 



After a while the mouse ventured to come out 

 of its shelter, though its heart still beat painfully 



129 



