“Oh dear!” she sighed, “I might almost as well go home now. It’s so late. I’m sure the ice cream and cake and all the goodies will be eaten before I get there. I do wish people would not be so careless and make so much work for other people to do. I’m all tired out now and I do hope that I’ve had my last delay.” With this thought she hurried along just as fast as her little feet would go. So excited was poor Fluffy now that she made a turn to the left instead to the right, and she had gone quite a distance before she discovered that there was something wrong. She did not know just what to do and became so dreadfully frightened that she sat down and cried as though her little heart would break. How long she had been sitting there she could not tell; she went over the happenings since her dear mother kissed her goodbye, and wondered if she would be able to find her way back home without being caught by that awful Old Tabby Cat. “If ever I get out of this trouble,” thought she, “I’ll never again stop any place to help anybody. If I had only gone straight to the party and let other folks take care of themselves I would be safe now.” With the thought that she was now the most unhappy creature in the world, she burst into tears again. A mouse holding a sign that reads Beware The flower. In no way a bluebell. It looks more like a sunflower. “Won’t you please give me those tears?” Fluffy heard a tiny voice ask. “I am withering away and must die soon if somebody does not give a me tiny drink.” Looking down, Fluffy saw a tiny little Bluebell all wilted, and looking so sad. “The trees are so thick here,” it said, “I cannot get the rain or dew, and the fairies are having a big party today and have forgotten poor little me.” By this time Fluffy’s tears were all dried up, seeing some one in distress made her forget her own troubles. “I can’t give you my tears,” she said, “for they have all dried now, but I can get you some water from the brook,” so again putting down her dear little fan and hanky she skipped off to the brook to get the water. She had nothing in which to carry it so she made a cup of her tiny hands and was stepping from one stone to another when her little foot slipped and splash into the water it went. “Oh, my dear little shoe!” wailed Fluffy as she looked down and saw the pretty bow all wet and muddy, “I can never go to the party now.” She tried her best to wipe off the mud and fluff up the bow and then got more water which she took back to the little Bluebell who was eagerly waiting for her to return. “There now, raise up your head and be happy,” said Fluffy as she poured the water around its tiny roots. “If you want more I shall get it for you, then I must try to find my way home, as I have lost my way to Furrikins’ party.” By this time the little Bluebell was refreshed after its hearty drink and told Fluffy the way to reach Furrikins’ home. A rabbit playing a woodwind instrument, possibly a clarinet
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