Renovating Mrs. Mouse s Kitchen

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

Renovating Mrs. Mouse s Kitchen

Mrs. Mouse had arranged to have the kitchen walls repapered, and the event was hailed with glee by Mousie Mouse and his two little brothers, Chris and Carl.

Mrs. Mouse had employed WhiskerWhofflenose and Company to do the papering, and they were to arrive about D.'iD on Tuesday morning. It was hoped, as it. was only a small kitchen, that they would have it finished by tea time. Mousie secretly hoped it would he a week. Chris openly declared that lie hoped it would be a month. Carl went to extreme lengths and wished it a year.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and clear, and, promptly at nine o'clock, Chris and Carl took up their post by the front door, which was ill the wainscot of a large kitchen. There they awaited the coming of the decorators, ready to help them carry their things down into the kitchen.

At twelve o'clock, however, they were still there. At 12.30 Mrs. Mouse called them down to lunch. On going to wash their hands, they found the decorators already half-way through their work, having arrived by the back door exactly three hours ago.

Of course they were very annoyed about it. and peeved with Mousie for not telling them, and having: all the fun to himself. But Mousie's motto, like his mother's, was "Let sleeping dogs lie." However, the special treat of cheese and candle grease pie I=ooll restored their good tempers, and the meal progressed in peace.

8y.... Marie Aickin After lunch, Mrs. Mouse suggested that the three of them should go for a nice walk in the sun. She said it in a tone that made Chris and Carl look up suspiciously. and Mousie feel at once that he was being done out of something.

"1 think that would be the best plan." went 011 Mrs. Mouse bright Iv.

••Don't go near the kitchen garden, though. I've heard them say tliat the iat has taken to prowling about there. And 1 emember, be sure to be back earl v. as it gets cold when the sun goes down.''

Mousie was (juite sure he "would be back early—in fact, he had made up his mind not to go out at all.

Mother/' ho said after a pause, '*1 think I have a slight cold coming on. 1 don t think I had better u'O out."

Me, too.' chimed in Chris promptlv. /'You what 1" said Mrs. Mouse, him with suspicion. * c 1 I moan I've got the earache." "And what's the matter with you?" sarcastically inquired Mrs. Mouse of Carl. "J oothache." said Carl promptlv. and hastily changed it to "oyeache."' as he remembered that his mother had some particularly nasty medicine for toothache.

"Very well, then." said Mrs. Mouse, laughing in spite of herself. 'Terhaps its just as. well, as the cat may be about. '1 here is a nice tire in* the parlour. You had letter fetch a book and read it there. Unfortunately, I have-to go out on a social visit to Miss Cmltail, so he sure to keep out of the way of the decorators." And with a meaning glance at Chris and Carl she rang the bell for the maid to clear the table and went out of the room to prepare herself for her visit.

Mousie and his two little brothers fetched a book and went into the parlour, not with the intention of staying there, however. They waited- until they heard their mother go out. and then shut the book with a bang, and let it fall to tlie floor. lautiouslv. tliev opened the door and made their wa'v down the hall to the kitchen.

What a glorious mess met their eyes when they opened the kitchen door! Stepladders. boards, wallpaper, buckets of whitewash, pails of paste—all were strewn in beautiful confusion over the room. Last, but not least, there were the decorators themselves. One was standing <iii Mrs. Mouse's new gas stove, and the other had leaned a stepladder against the chimney piece and was standing on the mantlepiece splashing awav for all he was worth.

The tlireo little mice stood in a row in the doorway, staring in open-mouth wonder and joy. but not for long. With a sudden shout of joy. they rushed bodily into the room, and entered into the spirit of the occasion.

It- all began l»y Chris taking away the stepladder that was against the mantlepiece and putting- it against the dres.-er

and climbing up. The decorator on tho mantlepicce. who was rather a conceited mouse, stopped hack to admire his work where he thought the ladder was. Hut, unfortunate to relate, the stepladder wasn't, and the result was that he fell headloiii off the mantlepiece and laiided upside down in a bucket of whitewash. The wisdom of fhe old saving that

"Pride is the cause of many a downfall,'' was brought home to him from that minute. As he picked himself out of the bucket he knocked by accident, or perhaps spite, the ladder that was against the dresser. Chris, who was on the topmost rung, swayed unsteadily for a minute or two. then managed to scramble up on tn the top of the dresser, whence he turned round and surveyed the company with a triumphant smile.

".Vow you <-an just stay there," said the conceited decorator nastily, and he took the ladder away from the dresser, and replaced it in its former position against the mantlepicec. Chris' triumphant smile changed to a sicklv grin. But he wasn't going to shed tears in front of strangers, at least, not if he could possibly help it. So he sat down a trifle unsteadily, taking care to keep his eyes off the ground, and looked up at the. ceiling and. pretended to be counting the flics.

Meanwhile, the other decorator was sitting on the plate rack above the oven, and was watching the performance with much amusement.

Carl and Mousie spattered with whitewash from whiskers to tail, were watching the little episode with mixed feelings. They had enjoyed the beginning where the decorator fell into the whitewash very much, but they were not so sure about the latter part of the proceedings. 1 hings seemed to ha\'e turned out the worse for Chris, but by this time ( hris had become accustomed to his dizzy elevation, and was throwing some of his last year's birthday cake i andles that he had found on top of the dresser into a pail of whitewash. Mousie and Carl thought it about high time tliey began to do something about getting Chris down, as Mrs. Mouse would be home before long. Carl began by trying to appeal to the conceited decorator's better nature but soon pave it up as he didn't seem to have a better half. But Chris seemed to be quite happy on his perch, so Mousie decided to leave him there while lie did a little experimenting on his own. ( ail was absorlied in seeing how far he could tip a pail of whitewash over helore it spilled.

Mousie found a spare brush, and a roll ot wallpaper, and he carefullv dipped the brush into a bucket of 'paste, and removing two offending candles that came up on the brush, unrolled a strip of wallpaper and began to lavishlv smear it with paste. When he had do„e this he held it high above his head and made his way with a little difficulty to the wall. His sight, however, was* obscured. and lie did not see Carl till it was too late. He tripped over him. and both Mousie, Carl and the bucket of whitewash went sprawling all over the floor. As they rolled tliev became more and more entangled in the wallpaper. . decorators, hearing the noise and seeing the tangled heap on the floor jumped angrily from their perches to give both the unfortunate little mice w liat tliev deserved.

Clins, leaning too far over the edge ot the dresser, suddenly lost his balance and tumbled off. He collided with a decorator 011 the gas stove, who caught Ins tail 111 a gas ring and so was counted out ot the game.

It was a case of every man for himself, or at least that is what Uiris thought as he made good his escape. Like" a ;T e t ~ 6 T as out t,f the donr up the hall and waited, breathless and panting. behind the hatstand. Mousie and v.arl wese not long in following. They

came tearing along the hall followe! by ail infuriated decorator. They mad' a beeline for the bathroom, rushed i> and slammed the door, missing Mousie's tail by a fraction. After a while, the decorator made liis way back to the kitchen muttering under his breath. A few minutes later Chris joined his fellow refugees in the bathroom, where they all set to work to wash the whitewash and fragments of stickv wallpaper from their persons. Not long afterwards they heard Mrs. Mouse come honi: and knew that they were safe. The decorator wouldn't dare to chase them now their mother was about, also h" would not be likely to tell her aboiii. the events of the "afternoon. He ha ' a little bit of a guilty conscience, for ii he had not been so conceited nothing would have happened. Had he known Chi is and Carl better he would have known that something would have happened in any case.

_ Anyway," said Mousie, busily scrubbing his whiskers, "it *as joliy w*ll worth it."'

Ooh yes," chorused his two little mothers, who were engaged in a hand to hand fight with the toweL