Porthos, however, found that he had no
straw left for himself.
Ojo placed his hand in the flabby stuffed glove that served the Scarecrow for a hand, and the Scarecrow pressed it so cordially that the
straw in his glove crackled.
But, fortunately, his comrade with the
straw on his back had entered behind him, and when the door was shut upon them he scattered the
straw about, and suddenly the red-hot walls cooled down, and it became so very cold that the Simpleton could scarcely bear to take a bath, and all the water in the room froze.
He smelled around the stuffed man as if he suspected there might be a nest of rats in the straw, and he often growled in an unfriendly way at the Scarecrow.
"He can't hurt the straw. Do let me carry that basket for you.
"Oat-straw is, I have found, the best of all
straws to re-stuff myself with when my interior gets musty or out of shape."
What the Queen said to them none of our travelers could understand, for it was in the mouse language; but the field mice obeyed without hesitation, running one after the other to the Scarecrow and hiding themselves in the straw of his breast.
"If that fire reaches me I will be gone in no time!" said he, trembling until his straw rattled.
"I'm leaving over there," he said abruptly, waving his
straw in the direction of the neighboring house.
After a few more steps, they saw, at the end of a long road near a clump of trees, a tiny cottage built of straw.
After he had cried a long time, he wiped his eyes and then he made a bed of straw for old Geppetto.
As soon as Pinocchio went into the stable, he spied a little Donkey lying on a bed of straw in the corner of the stable.