Long, long ago there lived a mouse in the forest.

The mouse was fearful all day and all night, for the sly fox always tried to catch him and eat up him.

The mouse was very clever and was able to hide from the fox for a long, long time. But one day, he let his attention wander, and before he knew it, the fox was right there!

The mouse was very scared and ran off as fast as he could. But he knew the fox was faster, so frantically¹ he searched for a place to hide.

He spied a cone² that he thought was big enough to hide him, so he scurried³ inside. Well, he was hidden well enough that the fox couldn't find him, but really the cone was too small.

And to this day, you can see the hind⁴ legs and the tail of the mouse sticking out from the Douglas-fir cone, where he is STILL hiding from the fox!

The End