The Blue Book of Tales by © J. A. Sommer

Author:© J. A. Sommer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction; Children's Fiction; Juvenile Fiction; Fantasy; Fairy Tales
Publisher: Bandersnatch Books
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

tale 3

The Mice Before Christmas

Once there were four mice. They were named Gus, Flora, Tom, and Millie. Millie’s real name was Millicent, but being the youngest, everyone, including herself, preferred to call her simply Millie.

These brothers and sisters were from a long line of noble mice, which had once been quite distinguished, but more recently had fallen on harder times. Though they had been diminished in rank, they had not in any way been diminished in tails. Fortunately for the Long-Tail family, their long slender appendages were still the prize of many a London mouse hole.

The sires of these siblings had once lived in a sprawling manor in the country, but a few generations back, they had joined their human landowners on a trip to Town. The mice had found Town so diverting that they decided that they would stay on for a few more seasons. They had decidedly become Town mice as time passed, but this Christmastide, all would change.

My readers should know that on the 23rd of December, our four little mice resolved to accompany the household staff on a trip back to their ancestral halls. After giving farewells to their great aunt, Constance, the heiress of their mouse hole and sole remaining elder of their family, they slipped away among the parcels and luggage bound for the manor house.

Flora and Millie were uncertain during their long journey, especially when the winds turned cold and it began to snow, but Gus, ever the optimist and rarely in doubt of his decisions, cheered them up. “Don’t worry, girls, we shall reach there soon enough!” For once, Gus was right. Before the sun set, they were passing before an elegant three-story manor house, all sharp angles and stony faces. Its windows were long and straight, and its many peaks were tall and topped with a multitude of chimneys. Once the carriage reached the back, they were bustled into the warm downstairs kitchen, hidden in one of the packing boxes.

Tom, being the bravest, was the first to leave the safety of their traveling compartment, then Gus. When they were sure there were no servants in sight, they were followed by Millie and, the most reluctant of all, Flora.

After scurrying about for hours, they came to the conclusion that the wide halls and endless number of unused rooms were, in fact, a mouse paradise. Their favorite room was the downstairs library, which was filled with the most interesting and tasty books they had ever sampled. It was so fine, in fact, that they unanimously decided that the small hole in the large window seat would be their new home–that is, once Gus and Tom gnawed it into a proper doorway. Their journey had been long, and their day full of excitement, so after sampling a little of the vintage cheddar stored in the pantry and bringing a few pieces of the best books to bed with them, they fell fast asleep.

The next morning started with a jolt as their entire mouse hole shook and echoed with a deafening “thump.

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