Hello,
I'm Alison and I'm going to read you The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter.
I remember listening to this story when I was a young girl and I loved it.
So I hope you enjoy it too.
Might be bedtime.
It might be any time.
Because any time is a good time for a story.
So settle in and let's begin.
Once upon a time there was a very beautiful doll's house.
It was red brick,
With white windows,
And it had real muslin curtains,
And a front door,
And a chimney.
It belonged to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane.
At least it belonged to Lucinda,
But she never ordered meals.
Jane was the cook.
But she never did any cooking because the dinner had been bought ready-made in a box full of shavings.
There were two red lobsters and a ham,
A fish,
A pudding and some pears and oranges.
They would not come off the plates,
They would pretend,
But they were extremely beautiful.
One morning,
Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the Doles perambulator.
There was no one in the nursery and it was very quiet.
Presently there was a little scuffling,
Scratching noise in a corner near the fireplace.
Where there was a hole under the skirting board.
Tom Thumb put out his head for a moment.
And then popped it in again.
Tom Thumb was a mouse.
A minute afterwards,
Hunkamunka,
His wife,
Put her head out.
And when she saw that there was no one in the nursery,
She ventured out onto the oilcloth under the coal walks.
The doll's house stood at the other side of the fireplace.
Tom Thumb and Hunkamunka went cautiously across the hearthrug.
They pushed the front door.
It was not fast.
Tom Thumb and Hunkamunka went upstairs and peeped into the dining room.
Then they squeaked with joy.
Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table.
There were tin spoons and lead knives and forks and two dolly chairs.
All so convenient.
Tom Thumb set to work at once to carve the ham.
It was a beautiful shiny yellow streaked with red.
The knife crumbled up and hurt him.
He put his finger in his mouth.
It is not boiled enough,
It is hard.
You have a try,
Hunka-munka.
He's not realising it's pretend.
Hunkamunka stood up in her chair and chopped at the ham with another lead knife.
It's as hard as the hams at the cheese mongers,
Said Hunkamonka.
The hand broke off the plate with a jerk and rolled under the table.
Let it alone,
Said Tom Thumb.
Give me some fish,
Chunkamunka.
Hanka Manka tried every tin spoon in turn.
The fish was glued to the dish.
Then Tom found lost his temper.
He put the ham in the middle of the floor and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel.
Bang!
Bang!
Smash!
Smash!
The ham flew all into pieces,
For underneath the shiny paint,
It was made of nothing but plaster.
Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunkamunka.
They broke up the pudding,
The lobsters,
The pears and the oranges.
As the fish would not come off the plate,
They put it into the red,
Hot,
Crinkly paper fire in the kitchen.
But it would not burn either.
Tom Thumb went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top.
There was no soot.
While Tom Thumb was up the chimney,
Hunkamunka had another disappointment.
She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser labelled rice.
Coffee.
Sago.
But when she turned them upside down,
There was nothing inside except red and blue beads.
Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could do,
Especially Tom Thumb.
He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom and he threw them out of the top floor window.
But Hanka Manka had a frugal mind.
After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster,
She remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed.
With Tom Thumb's assistance,
She carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth rug.
It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse hole,
But they managed it somehow.
Then Hunkamunka went back and fetched a chair,
A bookcase,
A birdcage,
And several small odds and ends.
The bookcase and the birdcage refuse to go into the mouse hole.
Hunkamonka left them behind.
And went to fetch a cradle.
Honka Monka was just returning with another chair when suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing.
The mice rushed back into their hole,
And the dolls came into the nursery.
What a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda.
Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared,
And Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled.
But neither of them made any remarks.
The bookcase and the birdcage were rescued from under the coal box.
But Hanka Manka has got the cradle in some of Lucinda's clothes.
She also has some useful pots and pans and several other things.
The little girl that the doll's house belonged to said,
I will get a doll dressed like a policeman.
But the nurse said,
I will set a mouse trap.
So that is the story of the two bad mice.
But they were not so very,
Very naughty after all.
Because Tom Thumb paid for everything he wrote.
He found a crooked sixpence under the hearth rug.
And upon Christmas Eve.
He and Honka Monka stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane.
Very early,
Every morning,
Before anybody is awake,
Hanka Manka comes with her dustpan and her broom to sweep the dolly's house.
The end.
I hope you liked that story of the two bad mice,
Who in the end didn't turn out to be so bad.
They felt bad about what they'd done and they did everything they could to make it right again.
When I was growing up,
I had a doll's house.
Whenever I played with it,
I did think about the little dolls,
Lucinda and Jane.
I thought about them leaving for the day and my doll's house too had plates with plastic food.
And I imagined what would happen if some mice came in,
Thinking it was real.
And honestly,
I couldn't blame them for trying,
Could I?
I hope you've enjoyed this story time.
Maybe you'll come back again for another.
After all,
Any time is a good time for a story.
Bye for now.
