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Henry, the Christmas Mouse

Posted by mcummings

Some months ago, my girls got bored withe their evening fare of stories and asked me to make one up. I fumbled for ideas, so they started throwing things out ("Giraffes!" "Ice Cream!" "Monkeys!") for me to use in the stories. This worked for a while, but while in the throes of #nanowrimo, I felt like my creative juices were spent just making my daily goals. So I stopped making up stories for a while.

But the guilt at stopping? Why, that never went away. And so, this week, during a coffee break, I jotted down the below story. It isn't anything special, per se, but it delighted my girls and made them smile. This being the tail end of Christmas night, what better time than to share a little story? Hope you enjoy (and remember, the target audience had an average age of four).

The story of Henry, the Christmas Mouse

Once upon a time ago, in a house much like your own, there lived a mouse by the name of Henry. Henry was like ordinary mice – small, brown, and a taste for cheese. But Henry was different than most mice. One year, not long before, he had saved Christmas for the three Darling girls.

It had snowed for days and days, until the snow was so high that Dad Darling could no longer drive his sleigh to work. Mama Darling spent the first few days making cookies and soups, but even that got boring. Worst of all, there was nothing on TV for the three Darling girls to watch but snow.

Henry watched all of this, but didn't know what he could do to help. He was small, and could leave the house on top of the snow, but he was only a mouse, and they were Big people.

One night, Baby Darling got upset in her room, crying because she was so bored. This was more than a proper mouse like Henry could take, and so he marched out of his mouse hole, and walked right up to Baby Darling and tapped her on the cheek.

Baby Darling looked up at the mouse and smiled.

“Can I help?” asked Henry.

“I'm bored,” pouted Baby Darling.

“That is a shame,” Henry commented. He thought about the problem for a few minutes, then had an idea. Taking a deep breath, he began to sing to Baby Darling. It was a little nursery rhyme Mom Mouse had sung to him when he was a baby, and it cheered up Baby Darling immensely. Smiling at how clever he was, Henry Mouse went back to his hole.

The next afternoon, Henry Mouse again left his mouse hole. Little Darling was upset because tomorrow was Christmas day, and they had no presents to give to Mama and Dad on account of all of the snow. Henry thought long and hard on this problem. Then he had an idea.

Henry ran into his mouse hole and began looking for all the things he had collected over the year. Ribbons and sparkles, pretty paper and bells. He carried them all out to Little Darling, who smiled a big smile.

She knew just what to do.

She took everything and made a present for Mama and Dad Darling to open on Christmas day. Henry went back to his mouse hole happy.

The next morning was Christmas morning, and all three of the Darling girls were awake. Mama and Dad Darling were still asleep in bed. The three girls were talking, because there was nothing special for Christmas breakfast. There was so much snow that they had no new groceries. Henry had an idea. He ran outside, on top of the snow, to the farm nearby. From the farm he carried two big apples all the way back to the Darling house.

The three Darling girls, Baby Darling, Little Darling, and Big Darling, laughed at Henry with his apples. They helped Henry carry the apples to the kitchen. Big Darling used a butter knife and cut the apples in half, sprinkling cinnamon and sugar on them. She even made a small pile of sugar just for Henry. Mama and Dad Darling were surprised and happy at their apple breakfast.

As they all ate breakfast and opened presents, they agreed, Henry the Mouse had saved Christmas.