Willie lay huddled a long while. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. Oh, there had been the typical attitude people had when they saw him, but he had become used to it and had forgiven it because he knew it was more out of ignorance than meanness. But no one had ever tried to kill him before. This was a very sad experience. Most people didn't like mice or squice. He knew that. But he had never been attacked before. He had heard about others of his kind being hunted and killed, but until that moment he had felt they had brought it on themselves. Now he felt otherwise. "No one is safe any longer," he thought sadly.
      He began to look around to see what kind of a place he was in. he walked along a cold water pipe, over some lattices, jumped on to a wire, and decided that it wasn't too bad a place - if he could provide himself with food.
      He kept walking along a pipe until he noticed a large hole in the wall which seemed covered with paper on the other side. He listened and heard nothing. Slowly he pushed his head through the hole and peeked out.
      A clean bright kitchen, everything spick and span, the kitchen of Henrietta and Humphrey Pickering.
      At that moment they were taking their regular walk around the park.
      Willie was very hungry, and he smelled food, good food. He jumped to the top of the cooker and listened. No sound. He ran to the bread-box, then to the cupboard, and took some nuts, a small piece of cheese and ran back through the hole
.
      "Not bad," he thought, "If I can get food in that nice kitchen every day there's no reason why I shouldn't make this wall my home."
      When he finished his meal he began to think about fixing up the place. A little chink in the far wall let in some light. He found a piece of paper, nice and crisp, which made a perfect window-shade.
There were also old piece of newspaper which he crumpled up and made into a comfortable mattress.

He found some old string, tied it together and soon had a fine trapeze. Then his sharp ears heard the sound of dripping water. He went to look. There was a leak in a pipe and the water dripped slowly, making a round deep pool. Willie felt the water with his toe.

It was just right, so he dived in. he swam around a few moments and came out feeling quite refreshed. Then he looked at his new home, heaved a happy sigh and thought, "Perfect. Everything I need, including a swimming pool."
      That night Willie slept peacefully.
      When he awoke he felt good. He dived into the pool for his morning swim. Then he did a few turns on the trapeze, which tool the place of his morning setting-up exercises, and went into the Pickering's kitchen for breakfast. Again Henrietta and Humphrey were out for their morning walk and Willie ate his fill.