Tumtum & Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall by Emily Bearn & Nick Price

Author:Emily Bearn & Nick Price [BEARN, EMILY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV001000
ISBN: 9780316052566
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2009-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

“I just can’t understand it,” he moaned. “This classroom is commanded by a teacher called Miss Short, and before she led her troops into assembly I told her who I was, and demanded in no uncertain terms that I be let out. But she ignored me! She ignored me! And all the children seemed to think it a great joke that I was wearing underpants. ‘A mouse in pants! A mouse in pants!’ they all squealed, as though they expected me to be entirely naked! I have never felt so misunderstood.”

“Who keeps the key to this cage?” Tumtum asked, ignoring this self-pitying speech.

“The janitor,” the General replied glumly.

“Where does he keep it?” Nutmeg enquired.

“On a big key ring around his belt,” the General said. “He wears it at all times, except when he’s opening the door. And he’s a giant of a fellow. You haven’t a hope of getting it off him.”

“And when does he open the door?” Tumtum persisted.

“During the lunch break, when everyone else is in the cafeteria,” piped up one of the gerbils, who had known the same routine all his life. “But he only opens it for a few seconds—just long enough to stick his fist in and dump more food in the trough.”

“And do the children ever take you out for exercise?” Nutmeg asked.

“Never!” another gerbil replied. “Miss Short won’t let them, because we give her the creeps—I’ve heard her say so. So the children just poke their fingers through the bars and tickle us. And when there’s a special occasion—a parents’ day or some such—they decorate us.”

“How?” Nutmeg asked, astonished.

“Oh, all sorts of things,” the gerbil prattled. “Last time, they tied pink ribbons around our necks and—”

But at this disclosure he was interrupted by a great gulping sound. To everyone’s astonishment, General Marchmouse was weeping.

“Oh, the shame!” he cried wretchedly. “The shame of it all! Can you imagine if the Mouse Times finds out about this! I can see their front page now: ‘General Marchmouse has been captured. He is imprisoned in a school cage, with a pink ribbon tied around his neck.’ I shall never live it down!”

Even the gerbils were touched by this, for there is something very upsetting about the sight of a grown mouse crying, no matter how badly he has behaved.

But try as they might, there was nothing anyone could say to console the General that morning.

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