{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15284/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15284","id":"gutenberg_15284","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15284","summary":null,"tags":["Category: British Literature","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Children's Picture Books","Fables","Folklore","Mice -- Fiction"],"text":"E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Jason Isbell, and the Project\nGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original lovely illustrations.\n      See 15284-h.htm or 15284-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h/15284-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h.zip)\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE TALE OF JOHNNY TOWN-MOUSE\n\nBy BEATRIX POTTER\n\nAuthor of \"The Tale of Peter Rabbit,\" &c.\n\nFrederick Warne & Co., Inc.\nNew York\n\n1918\n\n\n\n\nTO AESOP IN THE SHADOWS\n\n\n\n\nJohnny Town-mouse was born in a cupboard. Timmy Willie was born in a\ngarden. Timmy Willie was a little country mouse who went to town by\nmistake in a hamper. The gardener sent vegetables to town once a week by\ncarrier; he packed them in a big hamper.\n\nThe gardener left the hamper by the garden gate, so that the carrier\ncould pick it up when he passed. Timmy Willie crept in through a hole in\nthe wicker-work, and after eating some peas--Timmy Willie fell fast\nasleep.\n\nHe awoke in a fright, while the hamper was being lifted into the carrier's\ncart. Then there was a jolting, and a clattering of horse's feet; other\npackages were thrown in; for miles and miles--jolt--jolt--jolt! and\nTimmy Willie trembled amongst the jumbled up vegetables.\n\nAt last the cart stopped at a house, where the hamper was taken out,\ncarried in, and set down. The cook gave the carrier sixpence; the back\ndoor banged, and the cart rumbled away. But there was no quiet; there\nseemed to be hundreds of carts passing. Dogs barked; boys whistled in\nthe street; the cook laughed, the parlour maid ran up and down-stairs;\nand a canary sang like a steam engine.\n\nTimmy Willie, who had lived all his life in a garden, was almost\nfrightened to death. Presently the cook opened the hamper and began to\nunpack the vegetables. Out sprang the terrified Timmy Willie.\n\nUp jumped the cook on a chair, exclaiming \"A mouse! a mouse! Call the\ncat! Fetch me the poker, Sarah!\" Timmy Willie did not wait for Sarah\nwith the poker; he rushed along the skirting board till he came to a\nlittle hole, and in he popped.\n\nHe dropped half a foot, and crashed into the middle of a mouse dinner\nparty, breaking three glasses.--\"Who in the world is this?\" inquired\nJohnny Town-mouse. But after the first exclamation of surprise he\ninstantly recovered his manners.\n\nWith the utmost politeness he introduced Timmy Willie to nine other\nmice, all with long tails and white neckties. Timmy Willie's own tail\nwas insignificant. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends noticed it; but\nthey were too well bred to make personal remarks; only one of them asked\nTimmy Willie if he had ever been in a trap?\n\nThe dinner was of eight courses; not much of anything, but truly\nelegant. All the dishes were unknown to Timmy Willie, who would have\nbeen a little afraid of tasting them; only he was very hungry, and very\nanxious to behave with company manners. The continual noise upstairs\nmade him so nervous, that he dropped a plate. \"Never mind, they don't\nbelong to us,\" said Johnny.\n\n\"Why don't those youngsters come back with the dessert?\" It should be\nexplained that two young mice, who were waiting on the others, went\nskirmishing upstairs to the kitchen between courses. Several times they\nhad come tumbling in, squeaking and laughing; Timmy Willie learnt with\nhorror that they were being chased by the cat. His appetite failed, he\nfelt faint. \"Try some jelly?\" said Johnny Town-mouse.\n\n\"No? Would you rather go to bed? I will show you a most comfortable\nsofa pillow.\"\n\nThe sofa pillow had a hole in it. Johnny Town-mouse quite honestly\nrecommended it as the best bed, kept exclusively for visitors. But the\nsofa smelt of cat. Timmy Willie preferred to spend a miserable night\nunder the fender.\n\nIt was just the same next day. An excellent breakfast was provided--for\nmice accustomed to eat bacon; but Timmy Willie had been reared on roots\nand salad. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends racketted about under the\nfloors, and came boldly out all over the house in the evening. One\nparticularly loud crash had been caused by Sarah tumbling downstairs\nwith the tea-tray; there were crumbs and sugar and smears of jam to be\ncollected, in spite of the cat.\n\nTimmy Willie longed to be at home in his peaceful nest in a sunny bank.\nThe food disagreed with him; the noise prevented him from sleeping. In a\nfew days he grew so thin that Johnny Town-mouse noticed it, and\nquestioned him. He listened to Timmy Willie's story and inquired about\nthe garden. \"It sounds rather a dull place? What do you do when it\nrains?\"\n\n\"When it rains, I sit in my little sandy burrow and shell corn and\nseeds from my Autumn store. I peep out at the throstles and blackbirds\non the lawn, and my friend Cock Robin. And when the sun comes out again,\nyou should see my garden and the flowers--roses and pinks and\npansies--no noise except the birds and bees, and the lambs in the\nmeadows.\"\n\n\"There goes that cat again!\" exclaimed Johnny Town-mouse. When they had\ntaken refuge in the coal-cellar he resumed the conversation; \"I confess\nI am a little disappointed; we have endeavoured to entertain you,\nTimothy William.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, yes, you have been most kind; but I do feel so ill,\" said Timmy\nWillie.\n\n\"It may be that your teeth and digestion are unaccustomed to our food;\nperhaps it might be wiser for you to return in the hamper.\"\n\n\"Oh? Oh!\" cried Timmy Willie.\n\n\"Why of course for the matter of that we could have sent you back last\nweek,\" said Johnny rather huffily--\"did you not know that the hamper\ngoes back empty on Saturdays?\"\n\nSo Timmy Willie said good-bye to his new friends, and hid in the hamper\nwith a crumb of cake and a withered cabbage leaf; and after much\njolting, he was set down safely in his own garden.\n\nSometimes on Saturdays he went to look at the hamper lying by the gate,\nbut he knew better than to get in again. And nobody got out, though\nJohnny Town-mouse had half promised a visit.\n\nThe winter passed; the sun came out again; Timmy Willie sat by his\nburrow warming his little fur coat and sniffing the smell of violets and\nspring grass. He had nearly forgotten his visit to town. When up the\nsandy path all spick and span with a brown leather bag came Johnny\nTown-mouse!\n\nTimmy Willie received him with open arms. \"You have come at the best of\nall the year, we will have herb pudding and sit in the sun.\"\n\n\"H'm'm! it is a little damp,\" said Johnny Town-mouse, who was carrying\nhis tail under his arm, out of the mud.\n\n\"What is that fearful noise?\" he started violently.\n\n\"That?\" said Timmy Willie, \"that is only a cow; I will beg a little\nmilk, they are quite harmless, unless they happen to lie down upon you.\nHow are all our friends?\"\n\nJohnny's account was rather middling. He explained why he was paying\nhis visit so early in the season; the family had gone to the sea-side\nfor Easter; the cook was doing spring cleaning, on board wages, with\nparticular instructions to clear out the mice. There were four kittens,\nand the cat had killed the canary.\n\n\"They say we did it; but I know better,\" said Johnny Town-mouse.\n\"Whatever is that fearful racket?\"\n\n\"That is only the lawn-mower; I will fetch some of the grass clippings\npresently to make your bed. I am sure you had better settle in the\ncountry, Johnny.\"\n\n\"H'm'm--we shall see by Tuesday week; the hamper is stopped while they\nare at the sea-side.\"\n\n\"I am sure you will never want to live in town again,\" said Timmy\nWillie.\n\nBut he did. He went back in the very next hamper of vegetables; he said\nit was too quiet!!\n\nOne place suits one person, another place suits another person. For my\npart I prefer to live in the country, like Timmy Willie.","title":"The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":1346}