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The Tale Of Two Bad Mice
By Helen Beatrix Potter
For W. M. L. W. The Little Girl Who Had The Doll House
ONCE upon a time there
was a very beautiful
doll's house; it was red brick
with white windows, and it had
real muslin curtains and a
front door and a chimney.
IT belonged to two Dolls
called Lucinda and Jane;
at least it belonged to Lucinda,
but she never ordered meals.
Jane was the Cook; but she
never did any cooking, because
the dinner had been bought
ready-made, in a box full of
shavings.
THERE were two red lobsters,
and a ham, a fish,
a pudding, and some pears and
oranges.
They would not come off the
plates, but they were extremely
beautiful.
ONE morning Lucinda and
Jane had gone out for
a drive in the doll's perambulator.
There was no one in the
nursery, and it was very quiet.
Presently there was a little
scuffling, scratching noise in a
corner near the fireplace, where
there was a hole under the
skirting-board.
Tom Thumb put out his
head for a moment, and then
popped it in again.
Tom Thumb was a mouse.
A MINUTE afterwards
Hunca Munca, his wife,
put her head out, too; and
when she saw that there was
no one in the nursery, she
ventured out on the oilcloth
under the coal-box.
THE doll's house stood at
the other side of the
fireplace. Tom Thumb and
Hunca Munca went cautiously
across the hearth-rug. They
pushed the front door--it was
not fast.
TOM THUMB and Hunca
Munca went up-stairs
and peeped into the dining-
room. Then they squeaked
with joy!
Such a lovely dinner was laid
out upon the table! There were
tin spoons, and lead knives
and forks, and two dolly-chairs
--all SO convenient!
TOM THUMB set to work
at once to carve the ham.
It was a beautiful shiny yellow,
streaked with red.
The knife crumpled up and
hurt him; he put his finger in
his mouth.
"It is not boiled enough; it
is hard. You have a try,
Hunca Munca."
HUNCA MUNCA stood
up in her chair, and
chopped at the ham with
another lead knife.
"It's as hard as the hams
at the cheesemonger's," said
Hunca Munca.
THE ham broke off the
plate with a jerk, and
rolled under the table.
"Let it alone," said Tom
Thumb; "give me some fish,
Hunca Munca!"
HUNCA MUNCA tried
every tin spoon in turn;
the fish was glued to the dish.
Then Tom Thumb lost his
temper. He put the ham in
the middle of the floor, and hit
it with the tongs and with
the shovel--bang, bang, smash,
smash!
The ham flew all into pieces,
for underneath the shiny paint
it was made of nothing but
plaster!
THEN there was no end to
the rage and disappointment
of Tom Thumb and Hunca
Munca. They broke up
the pudding, the lobsters,
the pears, and the oranges.
As the fish would not come
off the plate, they put it into
the red-hot crinkly paper fire
in the kitchen; but it would
not burn either.
TOM THUMB went up the
kitchen chimney and
looked out at the top--there
was no soot.
WHILE Tom Thumb was
up the chimney, Hunca
Munca had another
disappointment. She found some
tiny canisters upon the dresser,
labeled "Rice," "Coffee"
"Sago"; but when she turned
them upside down there was
nothing inside except red and
blue beads.
THEN those mice set to
work to do all the mischief
they could--especially
Tom Thumb! He took Jane's
clothes out of the chest of
drawers in her bedroom, and
he threw them out of the top-
floor window.
But Hunca Munca had a
frugal mind. After pulling
half the feathers out of
Lucinda's bolster, she remembered
that she herself was in want of
a feather-bed.
WITH Tom Thumb's
assistance she carried the
bolster down-stairs and across
the hearth-rug. It was difficult
to squeeze the bolster into the
mouse-hole; but they managed
it somehow.
THEN Hunca Munca went
back and fetched a chair,
a bookcase, a bird-cage, and
several small odds and ends.
The bookcase and the bird-cage
refused to go into the mouse-hole.
HUNCA MUNCA left
them behind the coal-
box, and went to fetch a cradle.
HUNCA MUNCA was
just returning with
another chair, when suddenly
there was a noise of talking
outside upon the landing. The
mice rushed back to their hole,
and the dolls came into the
nursery.
WHAT a sight met the
eyes of Jane and
Lucinda!
Lucinda sat upon the upset
kitchen stove and stared, and
Jane leaned against the kitchen
dresser and smiled; but neither
of them made any remark.
THE bookcase and the bird-
cage were rescued from
under the coal-box; but Hunca
Munca has got the cradle and
some of Lucinda's clothes.
SHE also has some useful
pots and pans, and several
other things.
THE little girl that the doll's
house belonged to said:
"I will get a doll dressed like a
policeman!"
BUT the nurse said: "I will
set a mouse-trap!"
SO that is the story of the
two Bad Mice. But they
were not so very, very naughty
after all, because Tom Thumb
paid for everything he broke.
He found a crooked sixpence
under the hearth-rug; and upon
Christmas Eve he and Hunca
Munca stuffed it into one of
the stockings of Lucinda and
Jane.
AND very early every morning
--before anybody is
awake--Hunca Munca comes
with her dust-pan and her
broom to sweep the Dollies'
house!
THE END
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