Bless this Mouse by Lois Lowry

Author:Lois Lowry [Lowry, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Drat. Hildegarde could see, as she approached the fountain, that Lucretia had already scampered up its concrete side and assumed an authoritative pose, as if she were the one in charge. Well. She'd put a quick end to that.

"Thank you for holding my place, Lucretia," she said. "You may get down now."

Lucretia, sulking, moved off the fountain rim.

"And clean your tail when you get a chance, please," Hildegarde called after her. "There are bits of dried grass clinging to it."

That was mean, Hildegarde thought guiltily. But she did loathe Lucretia.

She turned and looked down at the crowd of mice. "We're fortunate that the water in the fountain has been turned off for the winter," she said. "Otherwise you'd never hear me."

Ignatious, in the front row, cleared his throat loudly. "It's quite an ordinary fountain," he said in his loudest voice. "Nothing like what you might find in Italy. When I lived at the—"

"That's enough, Ignatious," Hildegarde said sternly.

He harrumphed and became quiet, though he muttered something about the thirteenth-century fountain in Perugia.

Hildegarde ignored him and continued. "I know most of you have never been Outdoors before. We are not, after all, field mice!"

The audience tittered. Field mice! Of course they weren't field mice!

"And we will not be here long. Probably two days. But I myself have traveled a bit from time to time, and have learned to appreciate some of the dangers of the Outdoors. So I want to alert you.

"There are things to enjoy, of course. The grass is fun. And there are still some tasty flowers, in the fall.

"Do not nibble rhododendron leaves! Mothers, warn your mouselets! Rhododendron leaves are poisonous!"

Ignatious looked up. "From the Greek," he said. "Rhodos—rose; and dendron—tree."

"Thank you, Ignatious."

"When I—"

"We know, Ignatious. You nibbled a lot of Greek at the university library."

He nodded with satisfaction. Hildegarde resumed her speech.

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