The Conceited Mouse
: RHYMES CONCERNING "MOTHER": Boys And Girls Bookshelf
BY ELLA FOSTER CASE
Once upon a time there was a very small mouse with a very, very large
opinion of himself. What he didn't know his own grandmother couldn't
tell him.
"You'd better keep a bright eye in your head, these days," said she, one
chilly afternoon. "Your gran'ther has smelled a trap."
"Scat!" answered the small mouse--"'s if I don't know a trap when I see
"Go your own way, for you will go no other," the wise old mouse said to
herself; and she scratched her nose slowly and sadly as she watched her
grandson scamper up the cellar stairs.
"Ah!" sniffed he, poking his whiskers into a crack of the dining-room
cupboard, "cheese--as I'm alive!" Scuttle--scuttle. "I'll be squizzled,
if it isn't in that cunning little house; I know what that is--a
cheese-house, of course. What a very snug hall! That's the way with
cheese-houses. I know, 'cause I've heard the dairymaid talk about 'em.
It must be rather inconvenient, though, to carry milk up that step and
through an iron door. I know why it's so open--to let in fresh air. I
tell you, that cheese is good! Kind of a reception-room in there--guess
I know a reception-room from a hole in the wall. No trouble at all about
getting in, either. Wouldn't grandmother open her eyes to see me here!
Guess I'll take another nibble at that cheese, and go out. What's that
noise? What in squeaks is the matter with the door? This is a
cheese-house, I know it is--but what if it should turn out to be
a--O-o-o-eeee!" And that's just what it did turn out to be.
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