Bumble Cottage

Press, 29 July 1986, Page 18

Bumble Cottage

by Kelly Quayle, aged 9

Bumble Cottage, by Kelly Quayle, is the winning story in the Junior Press Mail Bag this week. Kelly will receive her $5 voucher in the mail. Post work to P.O. Box 1005, Christchurch. One cloudy autumn day in June a small mouse scampered across Bumble Cottage’s lawn. She had an autumn-leaved pinafore on and she carried a woven flax basket with plenty of berries and dried-up leaves in it. She scampered under the shelter of her nice warm home in the old oak. The home was a hollowed-out hole that Mr and Mrs Mousy swept out and put piles of straw in it for their babies. That was a year ago: Now it was the hard time. Hard winds, nothing to eat — hardly any, anyway. Mrs Mousy climbed the old oak into her snug home. “Now dears, we will have to go out and find as much food as we can get. We will need plenty of food for the winter’s storage.”

“Just in case we wake up in the middle of our hibernation,” included Father Mousy. “Yippee!” yelled twenty-one young Mousys! All the Mousys ran down

the trunk. They went across Bumble Cottage’s lawn and tried not to be seen by the people in Bumble Cottage. Only one little girl whom they trusted was allowed to see them. The little girl started to come out. “Pauliny, dear, shut the door behind you, will you please, dear?” said a posh-sounding voice. A very weary girl came out, carrying a small basket full of acorns, nuts, berries, small strong stalks, wool, and a' fairly big bottle of water. The Mousy family snuck over to her. “Do you hate being called Pauliny?” said the youngest. “Yes, very much. Do you know what my real name is?” “No,” said Jo (the youngest). ‘lt’s really Pauline.” “Pauliny!” “Hang on, Mum,” Pauline’s mum, a very slim, feminine-looking woman, came out. “Hide!” said Father Mousy. They all hid behind the flowers. “Pauliny,” said her mother, “put that basket down and come and do the dishes.” This lady wasn’t only very slim, feminine, and had a posh voice, but she also wore glasses, and when the Mousys saw that she was

gone, they came out and saw her glasses on the ground by the fairly big basket. The mice squeaked with excitement. They were just about to go through the door when “Shut that door!” yelled a lady (everybody knows who!). Pauline ran to the door and shut it, not knowing the mice had her. mother’s glasses. But five minutes later she did. “Where are my glasses?” demanded you-know-who. “I’ll find them, Mum.”

“You had better.” Pauline found the glasses by the porch on top of a lovely linen dress. She smiled to herself and went inside her house and the mice went into their house to put things in their storage places. •