Ho! Ho! Ho!

HAPPY HOLIDAY?

 

'Twas the night after Christmas and all thru the house each little baby and the fat Mama Mouse were having a party. The kitchen floor was sprinkled with cookie crumbs and snips of coconut. Colorful bits of M & Ms made the babies squeal and squirm and steal each other's sweets. They were getting full and were ready to take a deserved snooze, when the floor shook. Mother Mouse squeaked, 'Take cover. It's an earthquake.' The little ones had never heard of an earthquake and so ignored her. The shaking stopped. The little mice scampered every where, into cracks, under a mat, looking for more treats to take into their hole and have another time.

 

Mama Mouse rubbed her four feet together and called, 'the sun is falling. Run. Everybody run! Petey, the smallest baby of all, would not run. He stayed very still, stretched his little neck and looked up high, high as the tallest mountain must be. The sun was not falling. It had only gotten brighter. Thunder rolled. Silently something fuzzy was coming down a big ladder that had things the mice could curl their tails around. The fuzzy thing stopped suddenly. There it was, a moon shining on the fuzzy things. A giant, that's what was in the fuzzy things. A loud noise made all the little ears stand up straight. Half of the mice ran into their hole, carefully peeped out and saw the giant go up the ladder. They were happy again. The sun had not fallen. It was still high in the sky while the moon was hiding.

 

Mother Mouse sniffed. Her whiskers twitched. 'All of you get in our house now. I smell a cat. I know it's a cat because I saw one eat your daddy.' She sniffed again on the other side of the room and saw, smelled a Christmas present-- a big chunk of cheese. 'Stay back, children. Keep away! I will get that cheese for us. Be warned, you might hear a very loud noise and I will have to try again to get the cheese. Stay back!' The expected noise makes the babies shake, cover their littler ears. 'When the sun gets dark, I will get that cheese and we will have a good dinner. Just don't follow me.' The little mice obey their mama and scamper, looking for more M & M's.

 

Suddenly that same loud noise happens. Some of the babies climb on their sisters' and brothers' backs, peep out of their hole. They squeal, terrible squeals. They see their mama lying very still with the piece of cheese in her mouth, red water on her neck.

 

They wait until the sun disappears to get the cheese and they have a tasty party.