She caught sight of a thousand different faces coming and going in the trees’ bark. There were people of every different nation and time in those trees, young and old, from far and near, all intertwined all the way down through the roots that entered the earth. A rainbow trout jumped from the brook and got so close to her, he almost kissed her lips. Then he was gone with the merriest little splash imaginable.

After a happy interlude in the company of the brook and the trees, she came out into a clearing. In the clearing was a stone schoolhouse. In front of it was gathered a whole collection of children, all dressed in the finest of clothes. For the first time, the little mouse who had been turned into a little girl was aware of the shabbiness of her own dress. She looked down at her feet and was comforted to see all ten friendly toes full of memories of the brook and the trees still there attached to her feet just as they were supposed to be. She looked up again and tried to move toward the other children to offer them a pleasant greeting.

However, as she looked up, she noticed that, for all the splendor of their clothing, their faces were grim and fearful, set in lines of worry and unhappiness. All of a sudden, there was a sound like thunder. The door of the schoolhouse crashed open. The figure of a woman in a red dress with a broom in her hand appeared there.

"Come in, come in,
Or I'll sweep you in.
There's plenty to learn
and more to earn.
Give up your play.
Do as I say
Or I'll sweep you in
To the old dustbin.
Hah-hah, hooray,
An end to horrid play."

So the woman sang. The children were so frightened that they all ran to the door. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl ran along with them. Inside, everything was neat and orderly. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl knew that she was shaking inside and could hardly take a breath at all, let alone a deep breath. To her surprise, none of the other children seemed in the least bit bothered. Their bodies were stiff and their faces seemed frozen, looking at once worried and unhappy and eager.

The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl thought to herself, "Oh, I see. Whatever this is, they are used to it, unlike me."

Again, she was aware of the shabbiness of her clothing. She looked down at her feet for the comfort of her ten toes and their memories of the lovely walk along the babbling brook. One of her toenails winked at her. This made her feel a good bit better, so that she looked up again at the teacher.

By now, books had appeared on the desks in front of the children. The teacher began not so much to sing as to rumble. As she did, the pages of the book opened up. The other children seemed eager. On each page was the picture of a different battle. As the pages turned, the battles started to seem more real. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl started to imagine that she could hear cries and that the room was starting to fill up with smoke.

The teacher's voice grew louder and her eyes flashed. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl felt something pinching her. It was one of her classmates. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl looked around her. All her classmates were pinching each other.

Their eyes were shining and the room filled with shouts of, "You pinched me" and "No, I didn't" and "Yes, you did" and "You pinched me first" and "You pinched me harder" and "You pinched me even harder than that yesterday" and so forth. It was total bedlam. No one but the little mouse who had been turned into a little girl seemed to notice. She thought she would really much rather have been stuck in a bucket with a whole tribe of sharp clawed crabs.

Now the room definitely was filling with smoke. All her classmates' heads were getting bigger. Then one head became two and two heads became three and three heads became four and four heads became five and five heads became six and six heads became seven. The teacher was muttering about multiplication and division and how you had to conquer to divide and to multiply to expand and how two heads were better than one head and three heads were better than two and four heads were better than three and five heads were better than four and six were better than five and seven were better than six and there was no limit at all to what you might accomplish if only you put all your heads into it.

The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl was aware that she was the only one in the room now who had only one head and who was not pinching. She was in dreadful fear for that one head, because if two heads were better than one, someone might want hers and then where would she be? One seemed like such a good number to her. She wanted to squeak and protest and say, "No, no, I've wandered into quite the wrong place. I don't belong here at all. I'm really only a little mouse who should never ever have left her house."

But she was so frightened that no sound at all came. Luckily, she looked up and saw a small goldfinch perched just under the eave of the schoolroom's one window. The light flashed off its golden belly and she felt rich and peaceful. Just then there was another terrible crash as the books of battles slammed shut. Now the teacher was smiling with a smile that was even more dreadful than anything that had gone before.

"Dandy, dandy.
What a class.
Never worry.
Candy, candy,
is your reward.
So eat the treat,
don't fear defeat.
Kindness is blindness.
Just eat what's sweet.
No tomorrow.
Never sorrow.
Dandy, dandy.
What a class.
Candy, candy."

With that, she opened a drawer of her desk. A little man with bow legs, a green frock coat, white hair, a sack and the oddest wild eyes hopped out of it. The children all cried out in delight.

He hopped onto the first desk and took out shining candies shaped like spurs and stirrups and horses and sabers and swords. He hopped onto the second desk and took out candies that gleamed even more brightly. These were shaped like artillery pieces and medals and soldiers on parade and muskets. He hopped onto the third desk and took out candies of all brilliant colors shaped like the finest little dresses and dancing shoes and vases and buckles and captive kings and queens. Oh, how delicious they looked.

Soon the children were all sucking contentedly. Their faces were at peace and they looked angelic. The little mouse who had been turned into a little girl was jealous. Here they looked so peaceful and happy and she, in her shabby clothes, was so frightened and worried. How she longed for a piece of that bright and beautiful candy that shone so it seemed it might almost burst forth into song!

Sure enough, the little man hopped up on her desk too, only by now his sack did not seem quite so full. Yet, even so, marvels came forth from it. There was a Hussar's hat and a beautiful black Arabian stallion and three cannons and a galleon and a peacock from far off India, all in candy. It was the peacock, with its glorious tail that most attracted her.

She found herself thinking what a splendid campaign it must have been that resulted in bringing such a beautiful bird back home, what a glorious string of smashing victories must have been involved, how sad it would be not to know such a bird, to have it, to possess it. As she thought this, her hand moved to take hold of the bird.

No doubt she would have done so and popped it into her mouth and sucked and savored it and been lost like all the other children, had it not been for the fact that her eye chanced to fall on the gleaming back of the peacock candy and to see there not only her own reflection but also the reflection of the little man.

What a strange reflection it was, too. Something about the eyes arrested her and froze her blood so that her hand stopped moving towards the candy. In the little man's face she recognized the eyes of the owl that had passed overhead before and made her fear for life. So he was everywhere at work. But who was he?

She awoke, no longer a little girl but once more her very own mouse self, clutching hard at the Unicorn's mane. It had been a long dream. The first pink and gold rays of a clear dawn were sifting their way through the branches of the firs on which the snow had caught in the night. The sun's light gave delicate hues and tints to the snow, no two alike. The firs seemed to hold their arms still in reverence. The little mouse thought how much more beautiful this was than the candy in her dream. She was very grateful to be once more awake and her very own self. Surely school was a wonderful thing, but not that school.