Altogether it was a very nice world, a very nice world indeed to live in. Somehow he felt as if he never wanted to cry again.
Pretty soon along came the Merry Little Breezes again, chasing b.u.t.terflies. When they saw Danny Meadow Mouse sitting on his doorstep they pointed their fingers at him, just as before, and shouted:
"Fie, Danny Meadow Mouse!
Better go inside the house!
Babies cry--oh my! oh my!
You"re a baby--go and cry!"
For just a little minute Danny Meadow Mouse wanted to cry. Then he remembered old Mr. Toad and instead began to laugh.
The Merry Little Breezes didn"t know just what to make of it. They stopped chasing b.u.t.terflies and crowded around Danny Meadow Mouse.
They began to tease him. They pulled his whiskers and rumpled his hair. The more they teased the more Danny Meadow Mouse laughed.
When they found that Danny Meadow Mouse really wasn"t going to cry, they stopped teasing and invited him to come play with them in the long meadow gra.s.s. Such a good frolic as they did have! When it was over Danny Meadow Mouse once more sat down on his doorstep to rest.
Hopping and skipping back up the Lone Little Path came Striped Chipmunk. When he saw Danny Meadow Mouse he stuck his tongue in his cheek and cried:
"Cry-baby Danny Never"ll be a manny!
Run to mamma, Danny dear, And she will wipe away your tear!"
Instead of crying Danny Meadow Mouse began to laugh. Striped Chipmunk stopped and took his tongue out of his cheek. Then he began to laugh too.
"Do you want me to play with you?" asked Striped Chipmunk, suddenly.
Of course Danny did, and soon they were having the merriest kind of a game of hide and seek. Right in the midst of it Danny Meadow Mouse caught his left foot in a root and twisted his ankle. My, how it did hurt! In spite of himself tears did come into his eyes. But he winked them back and bravely began to laugh.
Striped Chipmunk helped him back to his doorstep and cut funny capers while Mother Meadow Mouse bound up the hurt foot, and all the time Danny Meadow Mouse laughed until pretty soon he forgot that his foot ached at all.
When Peter Rabbit came jumping along up the Lone Little Path he began to shout as soon as he saw Danny Meadow Mouse:
"Cry, Danny, cry!
Mammy"ll whip you by and by!
Then we"ll all come "round to see How big a baby you can be.
Cry, Danny, cry!"
But Danny didn"t cry. My, no! He laughed instead. Peter Rabbit was so surprised that he stopped to see what had come over Danny Meadow Mouse. When he saw the bandaged foot and heard how Danny had twisted his ankle Peter Rabbit sat right down on the doorstep beside Danny Meadow Mouse and told him how sorry he was, for happy-go-lucky Peter Rabbit is very tender-hearted. Then he told Danny all about the wonderful things he had seen in his travels, and of all the sc.r.a.pes he had gotten into. When Peter Rabbit finally started off home Danny Meadow Mouse still sat on his doorstep. But no longer was he lonely.
He watched Old Mother West Wind trying to gather her Merry Little Breezes into her big bag to take to their home behind the Purple Hills, and he laughed right out when he saw her catch the last mischievous Little Breeze and tumble him, heels over head, in with the others.
"Old Mr. Toad was right, just exactly right," thought Danny Meadow Mouse, as he rocked to and fro on his doorstep. "It _is_ much better, oh very much better, to laugh than to cry."
And since that day when Danny Meadow Mouse learned to laugh, no one has had a chance to point a finger at him and call him a cry-baby. Instead every one has learned to love merry little Danny Meadow Mouse, and now they call him "Laughing Dan."