 | The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse |  |
THE TALE OF
MRS. TITTLEMOUSE
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse looking at her garden]
[Description: Text page]
ONCE upon a time there
was a woodmouse, and
her name was Mrs. Tittlemouse.
She lived in a bank under
a hedge.
[Description: Text page]
SUCH a funny house!
There were yards and
yards of sandy passages,
leading to storerooms and
nut-cellars and seed-cellars,
all amongst the roots of the
hedge.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse in her storeroom]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse sleeping in her bed which is a box!]
[Description: Text page]
THERE was a kitchen, a
parlor, a pantry, and a
larder.
Also, there was Mrs. Tittlemouse's
bedroom, where she
slept in a little box bed!
[Description: Text page]MRS. TITTLEMOUSE
was a most terribly tidy
particular little mouse, always
sweeping and dusting the soft
sandy floors.
Sometimes a beetle lost its
way in the passages.
"Shuh! shuh! little dirty
feet!'' said Mrs. Tittlemouse,
clattering her dust-pan.
[Description: The fastidious Mrs. Tittlemouse chasing a beetle out of her house.]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse and Mother Ladybird, a ladybug.]
[Description: Text page]AND one day a little old
woman ran up and down
in a red spotty cloak.
"Your house is on fire,
Mother Ladybird! Fly away
home to your children!''
[Description: Text page]ANOTHER day, a big fat
spider came in to shelter
from the rain.
"Beg pardon, is this not
Miss Muffet's?''
"Go away, you bold bad
spider! Leaving ends of cob-
web all over my nice clean
house!''
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse scolding a bold bad spider.]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse pushing the spider out of her house.]
[Description: Text page]SHE bundled the spider out
at a window.
He let himself down the
hedge with a long thin bit of
string.
[Description: Text page]MRS. TITTLEMOUSE
went on her way to a
distant storeroom, to fetch
cherry-stones and thistle-down
seed for dinner.
All along the passage she
sniffed, and looked at the
floor.
"I smell a smell of honey;
is it the cowslips outside, in
the hedge? I am sure I can
see the marks of little dirty
feet.''
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse with a basket.]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse meets Babbitty Bumble, a bumble-bee.]
[Description: Text page]SUDDENLY round a corner,
she met Babbitty Bumble
—"Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz!'' said the
bumble bee.
Mrs. Tittlemouse looked at
her severely. She wished that
she had a broom.
"Good-day, Babbitty Bumble; I
should be glad to buy some
beeswax. But what are you
doing down here? Why do
you always come in at a window,
and say, Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz?''
Mrs. Tittle-mouse began to get
cross.
[Description: Text page]"ZIZZ, Wizz, Wizzz!''
replied Babbitty Bumble
in a peevish squeak. She
sidled down a passage, and
disappeared into a storeroom
which had been used for
acorns.
Mrs. Tittlemouse had eaten
the acorns before Christmas;
the storeroom ought to have
been empty.
But it was full of untidy
dry moss.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse makes her way to the acorn storeroom]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse pulls out some moss and bees poke their heads out.]
[Description: Text page]MRS. TITTLEMOUSE
began to pull out the
moss. Three or four other
bees put their heads out, and
buzzed fiercely.
"I am not in the habit of
letting lodgings; this is an
intrusion!'' said Mrs. Tittlemouse.
"I will have them
turned out—'' "Buzz! Buzz!
Buzzz!''—"I wonder who
would help me?'' "Bizz,
Wizz, Wizzz!''
—"I will not have Mr.
Jackson; he never wipes his
feet.''
[Description: Text page]MRS. TITTLEMOUSE
decided to leave the
bees till after dinner.
When she got back to the
parlour, she heard some one
coughing in a fat voice; and
there sat Mr. Jackson himself!
He was sitting all over a
small rocking-chair, twiddling
his thumbs and smiling, with
his feet on the fender.
He lived in a drain below
the hedge, in a very dirty wet
ditch.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse walks in on Mr. Jackson, a toad, in the parlour.]
[Description: A portrait of Mr. Jackson, the toad.]
[Description: Text page]"HOW do you do, Mr.
Jackson? Deary me,
you have got very wet!''
"Thank you, thank you,
thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse!
I'll sit awhile and dry myself,''
said Mr. Jackson.
He sat and smiled, and the
water dripped off his coat tails.
Mrs. Tittlemouse went round
with a mop.
[Description: Text page]HE sat such a while that
he had to be asked if
he would take some dinner?
First she offered him cherry-
stones. "Thank you, thank
you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! No
teeth, no teeth, no teeth!''
said Mr. Jackson.
He opened his mouth
most unnecessarily wide; he
certainly had not a tooth in
his head.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse offers Mr. Jackson some cherry-stones, but Mr. Jackson, the toad, doesn't have any teeth.]
[Description: Mr. Jackson, the toad, blows thistle-down seed all over the parlour.]
[Description: Text page]THEN she offered him
thistle-down seed—
"Tiddly, widdly, widdly!
Pouff, pouff, puff.'' said Mr.
Jackson. He blew the thistle-
down all over the room.
"Thank you, thank you,
thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse!
Now what I really—really
should like—would be a little
dish of honey!''
[Description: Text page]"I AM afraid I have not
got any, Mr. Jackson!''
said Mrs. Tittlemouse.
"Tiddly, widdly, widdly,
Mrs. Tittlemouse!'' said the
smiling Mr. Jackson, "I can
smell it; that is why I came
to call.''
Mr. Jackson rose ponderously
from the table, and
began to look into the cup-
boards.
Mrs. Tittlemouse followed
him with a dish-cloth, to wipe
his large wet footmarks off
the parlour floor.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse wipes Mr. Jacksons toad footprints off her floor as heads to the cupboards.]
[Description: Mr. Jackson, the toad, heads to Mrs. Tittlemouse's pantry in search of honey.]
[Description: Text page]WHEN he had convinced
himself that there was
no honey in the cupboards, he
began to walk down the
passage.
"Indeed, indeed, you will
stick fast, Mr.Jackson!''
"Tiddly, widdly, widdly,
Mrs. Tittlemouse!''
[Description: Text page]FIRST he squeezed into the
pantry.
"Tiddly, widdly, widdly?
no honey? no honey, Mrs.
Tittlemouse?''
There were three creepy-
crawly people hiding in the
plate-rack. Two of them got
away; but the littlest one he
caught.
[Description: Mr. Jackson, the toad, discovers some creepy-crawly people in the pantry.]
[Description: Miss Butterfly tasting sugar.]
[Description: Text page]THEN he squeezed into the
larder. Miss Butterfly
was tasting the sugar; but
she flew away out of the
window.
"Tiddly, widdly, widdly,
Mrs. Tittlemouse; you seem
to have plenty of visitors!''
"And without any invitation!''
said Mrs. Thomasina
Tittlemouse.
[Description: Text page]THEY went along the
sandy passage—"Tiddly
widdly—'' "Buzz! Wizz!
Wizz!''
He met Babbitty round a
corner, and snapped her up,
and put her down again.
"I do not like bumble bees.
They are all over bristles,''
said Mr. Jackson, wiping his
mouth with his coat-sleeve.
"Get out, you nasty old
toad!'' shrieked Babbitty
Bumble.
"I shall go distracted!''
scolded Mrs. Tittlemouse.
[Description: Babbitty Bumble, the bumble-bee tells Mr. Jackson, the toad, to get out!
]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse in the nut-cellar.]
[Description: Text page]SHE shut herself up in the
nut cellar while Mr.
Jackson pulled outthe bees-
nest. He seemed to have no
objection to stings.
When Mrs. Tittlemouse
ventured to come out—every-
body had gone away.
But the untidiness was
something dreadful—"Never
did I see such a mess—smears
of honey; and moss, and
thistledown—and marks of
big and little dirty feet—all
over my nice clean house!''
[Description: Text page]SHE gathered up the moss
and the remains of the
beeswax.
Then she went out and
fetched some twigs, to partly
close up the front door.
"I will make it too small
for Mr. Jackson!''
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse fetching twigs.]
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse asleep in a rocking chair.]
[Description: Text page]SHE fetched soft soap, and
flannel, and a new scrubbing
brush from the storeroom.
But she was too tired to
do any more. First she fell
asleep in her chair, and then
she went to bed.
"Will it ever be tidy
again?'' said poor Mrs.
Tittlemouse.
[Description: Text page]NEXT morning she got up
very early and began a
spring cleaning which lasted
a fortnight.
She swept, and scrubbed,
and dusted; and she rubbed
up the furniture with beeswax,
and polished her little tin
spoons.
[Description: Mrs. Tittlemouse being fastidious and polishing her spoons.]
[Description: Text page]WHEN it was all beautifully
neat and clean,
she gave a party to five other
little mice, without Mr.
Jackson.
He smelt the party and
came up the bank, but he
could not squeeze in at the
door.
[Description: A tit-mouse party.]
[Description: The tit-mouse party wishes Mr. Jackson, the toad, good health!]
[Description: Concluding text page.]SO they handed him out
acorn-cupfuls of honey-
dew through the window, and
he was not at all offended.
He sat outside in the sun,
and said—"Tiddly, widdly,
widdly! Your very good
health, Mrs. Tittlemouse!''
| The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse | |