Blackberries did not make a very satisfying supper. Especialy not after having them for breakfast and lunch.

Nor were the plants kind to Bean-sized digits. Arrietty wriggled a hand free of the scratchy blanket so she could suck her fingers. She wished she had some band-aids. Pod had Borrowed some occasionally to stick leaves of paper together or to make patches on the roof. Now she could imagine how useful they'd be to keep dirt and blanket fuzz out of the long red scratches on her hands.

"But of course!" She shot up. "The first aid kit!"

All the crickets stopped singing. Spiller grunted disapprovingly. He hadn't yet gotten over his shock at Arrietty's sudden size change and expressed his feelings mostly by staying out of sight. He was camped out somewhere under the grass. Homily had never been able to get him to sleep indoors.

"Sorry," Arrietty whispered, and lay back down. Overhead, the moon gleamed, a smooth golden quarter high in the sky. The bruise on her hip throbbed, so she turned over, carefully, to lay on her other side. She missed her thistledown mattress - the one that was currently the size of her hand.

She could see the entrance of the burrow, a darker spot close to her elbow. She hoped she hadn't woken her parents. But the thought had come to her and now she held on to it; surely it would be all right for her to Borrow a few band-aids in the morning. It would give her a legitimate reason to go back to the cow shed. Another urgent reason being that she was going to need a Bean-sized breakfast tomorrow, and she was already tired of berries.

Maybe...

"Information, please."

She'd spoken softly. The crickets hesitated, then resumed their songs full tilt. Spiller, if he noticed, chose not to say anything. Arrietty tapped her lips thoughtfully. The housekeeper at the old house had asked Information Please all kinds of questions. Maybe the kind voice on the phone knew about Information Please and could tell her where a decent Human Bean breakfast might be found.

She let that thought mix with the sounds of the stream and the chorus of the frogs. Overhead, a falling star glittered. She had never thought about the challenges of having a Bean-size appetite - well, until now. Not to mention needing Bean-sized clothes. It was so awkward to go about Borrowing in one's pajamas. Fortunately the people in the phone couldn't see her.

It was not in the nature of most Borrowers (except Homily) to worry about problems too far ahead of facing them. And so Arrietty, with potential solutions to most of tomorrow's problems floating about it her head, fell asleep quickly. No one noticed the little cluster of Borrowers or the sleeping Human Bean except the rolly-pollies busily moving into the new dugout roof.

X X X

It was twilight when something pulled her out of a sound sleep.

She lay there for a minute, feeling the edge of the blanket tickling her nose - but that wasn't what had woken her up. She could see the first hints of the sun thinking about coming up, in the east, toward the cowshed; the cowshed was a boxy black silhouette in that direction. The sky was clear, still speckled with stars, and the summer predawn air was cool and moist against her forehead. There was no wind; it was still.

Too still. The crickets had stopped singing. And this time, it wasn't anything she had done.

Arrietty eased up on one elbow, then almost jumped out of her skin when something large and clumsy thundered past her. Twin streaks of silver followed; one actually leaped over her, and she caught the flash of a pale furry belly.

Coyotes. They were chasing a calf. She had glimpsed the whites of its eyes, huge with terror.

She threw the blanket off and grabbed the bucket. They were running it into the fence, cornering it. This did not surprise Arrietty, who had grown up cheek by jowl with the brutality of nature. Two days ago there would have been nothing she could do.

Her feet slammed into the grass, and she moved faster than she'd ever moved in her short life, sailing over yards of ground that would have taken ages to cross as a Borrower. The calf had its back to the fence now. It lowered its head and blew, gamely threatening with horns it had yet to grow. The coyotes were nipping at its nose, crowding it backward.

"Go on!" Arrietty heaved the bucket at them. It struck one and bounced into the fence. They both startled backwards and wheeled on her, snarling at this new threat.

Oops. Maybe she should have kept the bucket in her hands. Too late now.

"Get!" she screamed, smacking her hands together until her palms burned while she edged toward the bucket. If she could get hold of it before they made up their minds to attack, it would make a decent club. "Leave'm! Leave'm alone!"

The coyotes wavered, torn between hunger and their fear of Human Beans. Arrietty's heart was in her throat, but she kept the pressure on, angling closer to the fence and the bucket. Maybe she could make them crack, make them run.

She would never know. So focused was she on the life-and-death argument she was having that she hadn't heard the rumble of an approaching engine. All she knew was that she was suddenly blind, standing with her hands out in front of her face in a wave of cold blue light.

"G' on with ye! Git! Git!"

It was a male voice, deeper and older than Sho's. A sharp crack followed, and another. She heard a yelp, and the quick patter of coyotes running, and the heavier, stronger tread of a farm dog. A car door slammed.

Arrietty lowered her hands just in time to be knocked to her knees from behind. A furry bulk crowded up behind her; the calf, seeking comfort against her warm backside. It was waist high and weighed more than she did, and didn't seem to realize that its snuggling was powerful enough to knock her over. She had put her hands around its neck, trying to fend off the slimy wet nose and regain her balance, when a second beam of light blinded her again. She hid her eyes against the calf's shoulder.

"Saint Peter's pinky!"

The light went away, played over the bucket, the cowshed. Arrietty, terrified, got up and gathered herself to run, but the calf shoved up against her again and she slipped on the dew-slick grass.

"It's all right, lassie." The farmer had some experience with frightened animals, and something told him that he was not dealing with one of his neighbor's schoolgirls. He put his rifle back in its rack in the truck bed and turned the engine off, then crouched down against the wheel to be less threatening while he talked to her through the fence. "Thanks be you're all right, you and the little'un. An' the pack had been bigger, you'd have been in real danger."

"Pa! Pa!" The far door slammed. "Is Beauty hurt? Did you get the coyotes?" A fair-haired girl scrambled around the front of the truck and slipped through the wires.

"Sissy, wait just a -"

"Oh my word!" Sissy flew to the calf and threw her arms around its neck, tangling limbs with Arrietty. The calf licked her cheek. "You bad cow! We've been looking for you all night! Hey, are you okay?" This to Arrietty.

Arrietty's lips parted. It was lighter now; the sun was edging a red sliver of itself above the windbreaks edging the field, throwing red gleams along the cab of the truck and making an orange halo out of Sissy's hair. Sissy seemed about nine years old, with angelically huge brown eyes, and looked like less of a threat than a rolly-polly. "I -"

But Sissy didn't let her answer. "Oh, nooo! Your poor hands! They're all scratched up! Pa, Pa!"

Sissy pulled her up, gently, by the wrist. Then she reached over and grabbed the calf's collar.

"We'll get your bell fixed and back on your collar, young lady - we'll see if you still have a hankering to be veal after today's adventure!" And, to Arrietty, "Come back with me and get your cuts treated. No, I insist. They look infected. Where have you been sleeping, in the dirt?"

"I, I, I -" Arrietty glanced helplessly over her shoulder, back at the dugout, somewhere out of sight under the grass. The glance wasn't lost on the farmer. Nor were the dirty pajamas, the bare feet, the half wild look in her eyes.

"Just come with us and have a good breakfast, as thanks for saving Beauty," he said soothingly. "Afterwards we can drop you off, wherever you want to go."

He had a kind face, like Father's, but he was mostly bald on top, with whiskers on his jowls. Arrietty hesitated. If she went with Sissy, her mother would be worried sick; she'd torn off without telling anyone where she'd gone. But if she marched back to the dugout right now, to tell her parents what was going on, her secret would be as good as out and she'd be putting them all in danger. Again.

"Do come!" Sissy pushed Arrietty through the fence in a friendly manner, while the farmer lifted the calf over the top. "Mom is making waffles and they're just yummy."