Small As a Mouse

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was playing with her dollhouse. As she peer inside through the window, she could see the teeny tiny sofa in the living room, and the teeny tiny refrigerator in the kitchen and the teeny tiny bed in the upstairs bedroom. It was wonderful.

So wonderful that she wanted to not just play with it, but to play in it.

"I wish I was as small as a mouse so that I could play in my dollhouse," she said to herself.

"Wish? Did I hear someone say wish?" said a teeny tiny voice. When she looked around, she saw a teeny tiny mouse wearing a black top-hat. "I can help you, you know," he said.

"Oh, that would be wonderful," she said. "But how can you help?"

The mouse took off his hat, and reached inside. He took out a ring and gave it to the little girl. The ring was exactly the size of her finger.

"Put that on," the mouse said, "and you will shrink to my size."

She did, and the girl began to get smaller and smaller and smaller, until she was teeny tiny… and eye-level with the mouse.

"Oh thank you, kind mouse," she said. "I so want to play. Would you like to come in and have tea?"

"That would be grand," said the mouse as he put his top-hat back on. So the two of them entered the dollhouse together.

The teeny tiny girl scurried over to the sofa in the living and plopped herself down. "Ow!" she cried. "This sofa isn't soft like the sofa in my living room, it's just hard plastic!"

"Oh, it isn't so bad," said the mouse, sitting down on a chair. "Didn't you mention something about tea?"

"Oh yes, I did. Make yourself comfortable, as much as you can, and I'll start things up in the kitchen," the teeny tiny girl said as she headed for the kitchen.

She opened the refrigerator and realized that it wasn't real and there was nothing in it. "My refrigerator at home always has good things to eat in it," she sighed.

Then she opened the cupboards for some teacups, but realized that the dishes were all hooked together. While this would be good for little girls with little fingers, it was awfully bothersome for teeny tiny girls with teeny tiny fingers wanted to have separate tea cups.

"Mr. Mouse," said the little girl, "I'm afraid we'll just have to pretend at having tea."

"Pretend tea is my favorite kind of tea," said the gracious mouse, and he sat at the table and pretended to pour.

So the teeny tiny girl has tea with the mouse and had a delightful time, for the mouse told her stories about how life was in her backyard and how he was once chased by a huge monster.

"Really? I didn't know I had monsters in my backyard. What did it look like?" the teeny tiny girl asked.

"It was huge! It was coal black with fur and huge fangs!" exclaimed the mouse.

"That sounds like my dog! She isn't a monster, she is my pet!" the teeny tiny girl replied.

"Pet? I can't imagine having anything that ferocious as a pet!" the mouse said as he buttered a pretend scone. He then told her another story about how he got into an argument with a squirrel about some seeds and another story about this raven who is always telling the funniest jokes.

"Well, I must be off," said the mouse, "as I have to stop and pick up some seeds on my way home."

"Where do you go for those?"

"There is this wonderful tree that rains seeds most of the day. I just stand underneath and wait for them to fall. The tree doesn't have any branches though, just a big box at the top," he said.

"That doesn't sound like a tree, that sounds like my bird feeder," the teeny tiny girl said with a laugh. "Thank you so much for visiting. I am getting tired, so I think I will go upstairs and take a nap."

So the mouse left out the front door, and the girl went up the stairs and into the bedroom and laid down on the bed. "Ow! This bed is so hard, not like my soft bed in my bedroom. I don't think I want to be this size any more."

But she didn't know how she would get back to being just little. She quickly ran to the window and called out, "Mr. Mouse! Mr. Mouse! Don't go just yet, I need to ask you something!"

But he was no where to be found, so she ran out of the dollhouse and looked around.

She looked at the ring on her finger and said, "Such an wonderful ring that can make me so small, but now it is an awful ring now that I don't want to be small anymore." But when she took the ring off, she started to grow and grow and grow.

And soon, she was just little.

"I must keep this for tomorrow," she said as she jumped into her soft bed to take a nap.

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