The Singing Mice

 The Singing Mice
by Elizabeth A. Davis

A Little family of mice
Lived in a hold as snug and nice
As ever mice could wish to live.
They'd plenty, and a grain to give
To any poorer little mouse
That chanced to come about the house.
But one day - 'twas the strangest thing -
They fancied they must learn to sing;
Then such a racket as begun!
From early morn till set of sun
The mother mouse grew wild with dread;
She said such actions turned her head,
That mice were never made to sing,
And surely 'twould a trouble bring.
At this the mousies only laughed
They thought their mother merely chaffed;
But still they sung, and sung, and sung,
Till every beam and rafter rung,
And good old farmer Brown declared
He'd have to have his house repaired:
''It's old and shaky, and the wind
Comes searching every crack to find.''
''Not so,'' then Mistress Brown replied;
''It's rats and mice that sneak and hide,
And keep up such a frightful din
You'd think the house had tumbled in;
But I've a remedy for that, -
I'll get a good and faithful cat.''
Next morning came, and Mistress Brown
An early journey took to town,
Returning with her friend, the cat,
An animal so sleek and fat
She looked as though she'd fed on mice,
Or something else as sweet and nice,
Her whole life long. And, oh! her eyes
So green, so sleepy, and so wise!
She crept along the kitchen floor,
And sniffed at every closet door,
Across the hall, and through the house, -
'Twas evident she smelt a mouse;
At length she disappeared from view -
What follows now is strictly true -
Beneath the crazy garret floor
She found the mice - they numbered four -
All in their hole, and quite content,
Unthinking of the punishment
Their mother said would find them out
When they began to sing and shout.
So, little children, give an ear
When wise ones counsel danger near.

6 Books to Celebrate Valentines Day

6 Books to warm your child's heart is the days leading up to Valentine's Day!

Mamma, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Jones. Set in the arctic, a little girl tests the boundaries to see just how much her mother really loves her... and it's a love without end or limits.

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Can you measure how much you love someone? It can be hard to do... even harder to put into words as this father and son rabbit discover.

Happy Valentines Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff. Mouse is busy at work making valentines to share with each of his friends to tell them exactly why he loves them.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. The classic tale of a little stuffed rabbit who dreams of nothing else but to be real. He learns though that becoming real is a process that requires a great deal of love, and sometimes love brings heartache... but equally, joy!

The Valentines Bears by Eve Bunting. This bear couple cut their hibernation season short to celebrate Valentine's day with each other, a jar of honey saved from summer, and other surprises for each other. (Update: see how we used this book in our classroom to practice making inferences here.)

How Raggedy Ann Got Her Candy Heart by Johnny Gruelle. After a disastrous flight high up on a kite, Raggedy Ann gets a thorough cleaning up, and a special gift of a candy heart.

Story of A Mouse

       A very neat little Mouse once lived in the same house with an ill-natured old Cat. When this little Mouse left his bed in the morning, he always washed and brushed himself with great care, taking particular pains with his long tail, which he kept very sleek and pretty.

       One morning the untidy Cat had not been able to find her brush and comb, not having put them in their proper place the day before; and when the Mouse ran past her, she snapped his pretty tail quite off because she felt so cross. The little Mouse turned and said, " Please, Mrs, Cat, give me back my long tail!"

       Mrs. Cat answered, " I will give you your long tail if you will bring me a saucer of milk; I always like milk better than tails." The little Mouse had no milk in his pantry, but he took his tin pail and went to the Cow, saying -

       "Please, Mrs. Cow, give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give back my long tail."

       The Cow said, " I will give you some milk, but I must first have some hay." The little Mouse then took his wheelbarrow, and going to the farmer, said -

       "Please, Mr. Farmer, give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay; Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give back my long tail."

       The farmer said, "I would be glad to give you some hay, but my barn door is locked; if you will go to the locksmith, and get me a key, I will unlock my barn, and give you all the hay you can carry on your little wheelbarrow."

       Then the little Mouse took his pocket-book, and went to the locksmith, saying, "Please, Mr. Locksmith, give me a key, and I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will then give me back my long tail."

       The locksmith said, "I must have a file with which to make a key; if you will get me a file, I will make the key with great pleasure,"

       So the little Mouse took his satchel, and went to the blacksmith, and asked him, saying - "Please, Mr. Blacksmith, give me a file, and I will give Mr. Locksmith a file, and Mr. Locksmith will give me a key, and I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give me back my long tail." The blacksmith answered, "I need some coal to build a fire before I can make a file. If you will go to the miner, and get me some coal, I will be glad to make a file for you." So the Mouse took his little cart, and went down, down into the dark earth, until he saw a man, with a lantern on his hat, and when he spoke to the man, the man said, "Well done, little Mousie, how did you get so far without a light?"

       Mousie answered that he was quite used to playing in the dark, and now he must work night and day to get his tail again; and then he said-

       "Please, Mr. Miner, give me some coal, and I will give the blacksmith some coal, the blacksmith will give me a file, I will give the locksmith a file, the locksmith will give me a key, I will give the farmer a key, and the farmer will give me some hay, and I will give Mrs. Cow some hay, and Mrs. Cow will give me some milk, and I will give Mrs. Cat some milk, and Mrs. Cat will give me back my long tail."

       Then the miner filled the little cart with coal; and the Mouse trudged up to the blacksmith, who gave him the file, which he put in his little satchel, and then ran as fast as his feet would carry him to the locksmith, who gave him a key, which he put in his pocket-book, and carried to the farmer, who unlocked the barn door, and gave him all the hay he could pile upon his wheelbarrow. Mousie took the hay to Mrs. Cow, who filled his little tin pail with milk, which the Mouse carried to the cat, saying, "Now, Mrs. Cat, please give me back my long tail."

       Mrs. Cat said, " So I will, my dear; but where have I put it?"

       Then this untidy Cat called all the people in the house, saying, "Where could I have put that tail!" "Oh! now I think I know - I believe it is in the upper bureau drawer." But the tail was not in the upper bureau drawer, and the poor Mousie who had worked so hard was nearly ready to cry, and the milk was getting cold. Then Mrs. Cat said, "I must have put it in this closet," and she ran to the closet, pulling down dresses and boxes; but there was no tail there, and the little Mouse had to wink very

hard not to let the tears fall, and the milk was getting blue, when Mrs. Cat shouted, " Of course I put it in the second drawer" ;but she tumbled all the things out of the drawer and found no tail; then the little Mouse had to sing "Yankee Doodle" to keep from crying, and the milk was in danger of getting sour.

       Mrs. Cat now clapped her paws, and said, " Why, I know where it is - I ought to have thought before - I put it here in this lower drawer, in this very box, wrapped up so neatly in pink tissue paper. Yes; hurrah! here it is!" And the Mousie took his pretty, long tail, and ran home as fast as he could to get some glue to stick it on again; and Mrs. Cat ate her milk, thinking she would try hereafter to put things in their places.

"Roasting Corn" Poem

By Mrs. Clara Doty Bates.

A faint blue cloud of smoke

Creeps up the golden air:

It must be the wandering gypsy folk

Have lighted a fire there.

No doubt they have covered vans,

And ponies shaggy and lean,

Which they will tether with dusky hands

Along the wayside green.

And the bells on their bridles hung

Will tinkle idly sweet,

With the chatter of children, rude of tongue

And bare of feet --

While, with grimy tents spread out,

Their elders lazily

Wait for the steam of the kettle-spout

To burn the time for tea.

Though surely I can get

But whiffs of the camp-fire smoke,

And though I know they are vagrants, yet

I will visit these gypsy folk.

Well, now! and is this Jack?

This Gold-locks? and this Ted?

With clothes and fingers a smutty black

And cheeks a burning red--

So hungry and forlorn,

In grandpa's ample house,

That you must pilfer an ear of corn

And nibble it like a mouse?

Will I have some? The smell

Is of itself a treat.

I'll trust the boys and girls to tell

When things are good to eat!

(All poetry on this blog is in the public domain folks.)

"The Lion and the Mouse Fable" in Silhouettes

The Lion and the Mouse

      "A hungry mouse notices a tree full of fruit and attempts to reach the fruit by climbing up a big rock, but to his surprise, the rock is actually a sleeping lion. The angry lion forgives the little mouse and helps him to reach the fruit. The lion laughs at the mouse when he promises to one day return the favor. However, when the lion gets caught in a thicket of vines and the mouse comes to his rescue, the lion realizes that even the small can be a big help."