Moving In

"Wow!" said John Mouse. "This place is huge!" The Mouse family was just moving in to a new mousehole. The apartment that they had lived in got too small for their family of four. Samantha, John's sister, dropped her box of stuff and said," Neat. But I'm hungry. Is there anything to eat in this place?" Mr. Mouse looked around. "Looks like the mice that moved out were messy." He was right. The last tenants had left a huge mess behind. There were pieces of paper, toothpicks, a walnut bowl, and lots of little bits of candy. Samantha picked up a sweettart warily and nibbled it. "Ahh!" she shrieked, spitting it out. "This tastes as if it was a month old! Can we have some real food?" "Of course," Mrs. Mouse said. "Robert, will you get us some food?" Mr. Mouse sighed. "But we just got here," he complained. "I want to rest." "Nobody is going to rest," Mrs. Mouse said. "I am going to clean up this mousehole. John and Samantha are going to clean and put away their things in their rooms. And you are going to get us some lunch." "All right," Mr. Mouse finally said, giving in. "I'll be back in a jiffy." He walked out of the mousehole. Mrs. Mouse turned to face her children. She was smiling. "There's a treat for you," she said. "You can each have your own room!" "Yes!" Samantha cried joyfully. "I won't have to share with that slob!" "You mean it?" John asked. "This is so awesome. I want the bigger room!" "Hey!" Samantha said, frowning. "I want the bigger room. I'm the youngest, so I should get it." "No fighting!" Mrs. Mouse said. "The rooms are exactly the same size. Your father and I are getting the biggest room." Samantha grinned, happy that John wouldn't get his way for once. "Well, I get this room," John said, walking into the nearest bedroom and dropping his box down. Samantha picked up her box and went into the other bedroom and Mrs. Mouse went into the kitchen. They all started cleaning. "I'm back!" Mr. Mouse called. He set down a little bucket full of water and some other stuff. Samantha, John, and Mrs. Mouse came running to see what he had brought back. "Water!" Mrs. Mouse said in amazement. "And washcloths. And grass!" "The grass was just lying in the garbage," Mr. Mouse explained. "There was tons of it. Now we can make some chairs and beds." Samantha was examining the food. "Yay, carrots!" she cried. "I like carrots. There's also corn, green beans, and candy!" She was holding a piece of a chocolate bar half her size. "That's for everybody," Mr. Mouse said proudly. "The living room looks nice." It was true. Mrs. Mouse had cleaned it up and thrown the garbage outside. Now she started to make four chairs with the grass. Mr. Mouse brought back more grass to make the beds with. "It's perfect!" Mrs. Mouse said. She had made some pillows for the beds with some fabric she found. "Let's have dinner," Mr. Mouse said. "Carrot soup," Mrs. Mouse said, bringing out a walnut shell dish full of it to everybody. "We also have candy for dessert." "Mmm!" Samantha said. "It's delicious." "The last tenants left a lot of dishes and cooking things," Mrs. Mouse said. "There was a masher, bowls, cups, and utensils." There was a small spoon in everyone's dish. Now the Mouse family had a wonderful home. They also had lots of adventures, but those can be saved for the next story.

Copyright 2000 by Chantessy