I live in a big house away out in California. My mother has made a very
cozy home for us between the walls where it is nice and dark. We do not
mind the dark, you know, for we can see even better then, with our
little bright eyes.
Our bed is soft and warm and is made of tiny bits of paper which we
children helped our mother to tear up and it is lined with some nice
soft cotton which she picked out of a comforter one night when every-one
had gone to church.
We have never been out very much but now, our mother says, we are big
enough to help get the living. When she told us this, we all said:
“Squeak, squeak, squeak,” which, in mouse language, meant that we were
glad and thought it would be fine fun to leave our nest and go out into
the big world.
But mother said: “Children, before you go I want to tell you something;
listen well to what I shall say.”
And so we six little mice sat very solemnly in a row, on our hind legs
and pricked up our ears and listened quietly while she went on. “You go
through a narrow passage till you come to a little round hole and when
you have squeezed through this you will find yourself in a big room
called a kitchen. You must then run quickly across the floor and into
the door of a bathroom. There is also a hole behind the bathroom door
which you may need to jump into if anything happens. Next comes a nice,
large pantry and in there you will find everything that we mice like to
eat. Bring what you can carry, after you have eaten all you can, but do
not eat too much or you will never be able to squeeze through the hole
again. Now you must never go in the daytime, but wait until night.”
After telling us this, my mother left the nest saying that she was going
to call on one of our neighbors who lived in an old felt hat, very near
us. She said she might be gone some time, so, while my brothers and
sisters were taking a nap, I thought to myself: “I don’t see why mother
told me not to go in daylight. I am sure everything seems perfectly
quiet now and I don’t think anything could hurt me; and I do feel so
hungry. I guess I will go on a little trip, and ‘we shall see what we
shall see.’” With that I crept out of the nest without making the least
bit of noise and followed the directions my mother had given me.
Soon I found myself in the pantry and O! how good everything did smell.
I found some cheese and I ate a very big hole in a white cake with icing
on it and was just thinking what I could carry home as a surprise for
the children when I heard a rushing noise like the patter of feet and I
jumped behind some glass jars that were on the floor in the corner.
To my horror I saw very near me, for I could see right through the glass
jar, a funny thing with long white wool and sharp teeth, a long, pointed
nose and a terrible big red tongue hanging out of its mouth and little
sharp black eyes that seemed to be looking clear through me. Oh! how I
trembled and oh! how I wished then that I had obeyed my mother.
I saw now, when it was too late, that she knew best. Just then a big
giant with dresses on came into the pantry and I heard her say: “That
dog thinks there is a mouse in here.” So it was a dog and I remembered
now that my mother had said one day that there was a spitz dog in that
house.
The lady went out but the dog smelled me and was determined not to give
me up so he ran to the big giant with dresses on and whined and whined
until she came in again and said: “Well, Zip, I guess there must be a
mouse here since you insist on it.” So she went out and got a long stick
with a lot of straws on the end of it (she called it a broom), and with
that she poked around all over the pantry, and the funny thing with
long, white wool and sharp teeth kept smelling around and clawing at the
glass jars till I thought I should die of fright. “It must be behind
those jars, the way Zip acts,” she said; and she took the broom and
knocked over all the jars with a crash. Well! I thought my time had
surely come. My eyes filled with tears and my heart almost broke as I
thought of my dear mother and all my sisters and brothers so happy at
home.
But just in that terrible moment I happened to remember what my mother
had said about running into that other hole in case anything should
happen, so with one bound I was on the floor and the funny thing with
long, white wool and sharp teeth made a grab for me. I could feel his
hot breath close upon me and I could almost feel his sharp teeth when I
heard the big giant with dresses on say: “Catch him, Zip.”
But surely a kind fate must have been with me for I was too quick for
them. I never ran so fast in my life. I fairly flew till I found the
hole behind the door and jumped in and ran along till I found myself
once more at home, where all the family were frightened almost to death
at my absence.
After that terrible experience I shall always do what my mother tells me
to, for after all, she knows best.
Jessie Juliet Knox.