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Speaker 1: Welcome, sleep tight stories, the very short story of the

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Speaker 1: Foolish Little Mouse. The mice who lived in the barn

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Speaker 1: and around the granaries had many cousins living on the

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Speaker 1: farm who were pleasant people to know. Anyone could tell

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Speaker 1: by looking at them that they were related. Yet there

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Speaker 1: were differences in size, in the coloring of their fur,

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Speaker 1: in their voices, and most of all, in their ways

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Speaker 1: of living. Some of these cousins would come to visit

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Speaker 1: at the barn in winter when there was little to

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Speaker 1: eat in the fields. The meadow mice never did this.

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Speaker 1: They were friendly with the people who came from the

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Speaker 1: farm yard to graze in the meadow, Yet when they

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Speaker 1: were asked to return the call, they said, no, thank you.

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Speaker 1: We are an out of door family and we never

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Speaker 1: enter houses. We do not often go to the farm yard,

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Speaker 1: but we are always glad to see you here. Come again.

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Speaker 1: When the cows are in the meadow, they watch for

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Speaker 1: these tiny people and stop short if they hear their

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Speaker 1: voices from the grass near by. Of course, the horses

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Speaker 1: are careful, for horses will never step on any person

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Speaker 1: large or small if they can help it. They are

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Speaker 1: very particular about this. All through the meadow you can

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Speaker 1: see if you look sharply, shallow winding paths among the grasses,

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Speaker 1: and these paths are worn by the running to and

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Speaker 1: fro of the meadow mice. Their homes are in stumps

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Speaker 1: of trees or in the higher ground near the ditches.

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Speaker 1: In these homes, the baby meadow mice stay until they

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Speaker 1: are large enough to go out into the great world

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Speaker 1: and eat roots, grasses, and seeds with their fathers and mothers.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes they do go out a little way with their

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Speaker 1: mother before this, and they go in a very funny fashion.

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Speaker 1: Of course, when they are babies, they drink warm milk

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Speaker 1: from her body, as the children of most four legged

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Speaker 1: people do. Sometimes a young meadow mouse does not want

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Speaker 1: to stop drinking his milk when it is time for

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Speaker 1: his mother to leave the nest, so he just hangs

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Speaker 1: on to her with his tiny, toothless mouth, and when

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Speaker 1: she goes, she drags him along on the ground beside her.

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Speaker 1: The ground is rather rough for such soft little babies,

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Speaker 1: and they do not go far in this way, but

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Speaker 1: are glad enough to snuggle down again with their brothers

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Speaker 1: and sisters. There is no danger of their being lonely

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Speaker 1: even when their mother is away for the meadow mice

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Speaker 1: have large families, and where there are ten babies of

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Speaker 1: the same age, or even only six, which has thought

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Speaker 1: a small family among their people, it is not possible

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Speaker 1: for one to feel alone. There were two fine meadow

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Speaker 1: mice who built their nest in the bank of a ditch,

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Speaker 1: and were much liked by all their relatives. They had

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Speaker 1: raised many children to full grown mousehood, and were kind

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Speaker 1: and wise parents. When their children were married and had

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Speaker 1: homes of their own, they still liked to come back

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Speaker 1: to visit. The father and mother were gentle and kindly,

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Speaker 1: as all mice are, and were almost as handsome as

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Speaker 1: when they had first been began to naw. Nobody could

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Speaker 1: say that he ever saw a bit of dust on

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Speaker 1: either of them. The brown fur of their upper part

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Speaker 1: of their bodies and the grayish white fur underneath always

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Speaker 1: lay sleek and tidy, and from their long whiskers to

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Speaker 1: the tip of their hairless tails, they were as dainty

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Speaker 1: as possible. That was one reason why they were so

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Speaker 1: fine looking. For you know, it makes no difference how

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Speaker 1: beautiful one may be in the first place. If he

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Speaker 1: does not try to keep clean, he is not pleasant

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Speaker 1: to look at. While many quite plain people are charming

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Speaker 1: because they look well and happy and clean. Now this

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Speaker 1: pair of mice had eight mouse babies in their nests.

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Speaker 1: The babies were no larger than bumblebees at first, and

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Speaker 1: very pink. This was not because their fur was pink,

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Speaker 1: but only because it was so very short that through

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Speaker 1: it and their skin thin, that one could see the

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Speaker 1: glow of the red blood in their veins. Did you

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Speaker 1: ever see such beautiful babies? Said their mother proudly to

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Speaker 1: her neighbors. They are certainly the finest I ever had.

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Speaker 1: Her friends smiled, for she always said the same thing

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Speaker 1: whenever she had little ones. Yet they understood, for they

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Speaker 1: had children of their own and knew that although mothers

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Speaker 1: love all alike, there was always a time when the

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Speaker 1: youngest seems the most promising. That is, before they are

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Speaker 1: old enough to be naughty. The days passed, and the

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Speaker 1: eight baby meadow mice ate and slept and pushed each

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Speaker 1: other around and talked in their sweet, squeazy little voices.

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Speaker 1: They were less pink every day, and more the color

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Speaker 1: of their father and mother. They grew too, so fast

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Speaker 1: that the nest was hardly large enough for them, and

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Speaker 1: the teeth were showing in their tiny pink mouths. Their

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Speaker 1: mother saw that they would soon be ready to go

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Speaker 1: out into the world, and she began to teach them

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Speaker 1: the things they needed to know. She took them outside

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Speaker 1: the nest each pleasant day and gave them lessons in

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Speaker 1: running and gnawing, and showed them how to crouch down

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Speaker 1: on the brown earth and lie still until danger was past.

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Speaker 1: After she had told them many things, she would ask

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Speaker 1: them short questions to make sure they remembered. How many

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Speaker 1: great dangers are there? She said five, answered the little mice.

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Speaker 1: What are they? Hawks, owls, weasels, cats, and men? Hmm.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about hawks. Hawks are big birds who seem

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Speaker 1: to float in the air. They have very sharp eyes,

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Speaker 1: and when they see a mouse, they drop suddenly down

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Speaker 1: and catch him. They fly in the daytime. Tell me

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Speaker 1: about owls. They are big birds who fly at night

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Speaker 1: without making any noise. They can see from far away,

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Speaker 1: and they catch mice good. Tell me about weasels. They

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Speaker 1: are slender little animals, nearly twice as long as a mouse.

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Speaker 1: They have small heads, four short legs, and sharp claws.

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Speaker 1: Brown fur on their backs and white underneath, and sometimes

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Speaker 1: when the weather is very cold, they turn white all over.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about cats. Cats are very much bigger than weasels,

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Speaker 1: and are of many colors. They have long tails and

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Speaker 1: whiskers and dreadful great eyes. They walk on four legs,

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Speaker 1: but make no noise because they have cushions on their feet. Okay,

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Speaker 1: and tell me about men. Men are very big, two

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Speaker 1: legged people, and when they are fully grown, are taller

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Speaker 1: than cows. They make noise in walking, and they can

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Speaker 1: neither smell nor see us from afar? And what are

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Speaker 1: you to do when you see these dangers coming? We

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Speaker 1: are to run away as fast as we can from hawks, weasels, owls,

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Speaker 1: and cats. If a man comes near us, we are

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Speaker 1: to lie perfectly still and watch him, and are not

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Speaker 1: to move unless we are sure that he sees us

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Speaker 1: or is likely to step on us. Men do not

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Speaker 1: know so much about mice as the other dangers do.

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Speaker 1: And what if you are not sure that some creature

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Speaker 1: is a hawk, an owl, a weasel, or a cat.

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Speaker 1: Mother asked, if we even think it may be, we

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Speaker 1: are to run? When are you to run at once?

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Speaker 1: Say that again? We are to run at once. Very good?

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Speaker 1: That is all for today. You can see how well

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Speaker 1: the meadow mouse mother brought up her children, and how

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Speaker 1: carefully she taught them about life. If they had been

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Speaker 1: wise and always minded her, they would have saved themselves

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Speaker 1: much trouble. Seven of them were dutiful and obedient, But

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Speaker 1: the largest of the eight, and the fire looking, liked

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Speaker 1: to decide things for himself, and often laughed at his

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Speaker 1: brothers and sisters for being afraid. Because he was so

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Speaker 1: big and handsome and spoke in such a dashing way,

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Speaker 1: they sometimes wondered if he didn't know as much as

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Speaker 1: their mother. One sunshiny day, when all the eight children

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Speaker 1: were playing and feeding together in the short grass, one

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Speaker 1: of them saw a great black bird in the air. Oh, look,

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Speaker 1: she cried, that may be a hawk. We'd better run, Ah,

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Speaker 1: said the biggest little meadow mouse. Who's afraid? Mother said

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Speaker 1: to run. They squeaked, and seven long bare tails whisked

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Speaker 1: out of sight under a stump. Oh, said the biggest

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Speaker 1: little meadow mouse. Before I'd be so scared, I'd dare

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Speaker 1: you to come back. I dare you to. Just then

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Speaker 1: the hawks swooped down, and that is the end of

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Speaker 1: the story. For after that there was no foolish little

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Speaker 1: meadow mouse to tell about