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diff --git a/15284.txt b/15284.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e44a76e --- /dev/null +++ b/15284.txt @@ -0,0 +1,579 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse, by Beatrix +Potter + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse + +Author: Beatrix Potter + +Release Date: March 8, 2005 [eBook #15284] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF JOHNNY TOWN-MOUSE*** + + +E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Jason Isbell, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original lovely illustrations. + See 15284-h.htm or 15284-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h/15284-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h.zip) + + + + + + +THE TALE OF JOHNNY TOWN-MOUSE + +By BEATRIX POTTER + +Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," &c. + +Frederick Warne & Co., Inc. +New York + +1918 + + + + +TO AESOP IN THE SHADOWS + + + + +Johnny Town-mouse was born in a cupboard. Timmy Willie was born in a +garden. Timmy Willie was a little country mouse who went to town by +mistake in a hamper. The gardener sent vegetables to town once a week by +carrier; he packed them in a big hamper. + +The gardener left the hamper by the garden gate, so that the carrier +could pick it up when he passed. Timmy Willie crept in through a hole in +the wicker-work, and after eating some peas--Timmy Willie fell fast +asleep. + +He awoke in a fright, while the hamper was being lifted into the carrier's +cart. Then there was a jolting, and a clattering of horse's feet; other +packages were thrown in; for miles and miles--jolt--jolt--jolt! and +Timmy Willie trembled amongst the jumbled up vegetables. + +At last the cart stopped at a house, where the hamper was taken out, +carried in, and set down. The cook gave the carrier sixpence; the back +door banged, and the cart rumbled away. But there was no quiet; there +seemed to be hundreds of carts passing. Dogs barked; boys whistled in +the street; the cook laughed, the parlour maid ran up and down-stairs; +and a canary sang like a steam engine. + +Timmy Willie, who had lived all his life in a garden, was almost +frightened to death. Presently the cook opened the hamper and began to +unpack the vegetables. Out sprang the terrified Timmy Willie. + +Up jumped the cook on a chair, exclaiming "A mouse! a mouse! Call the +cat! Fetch me the poker, Sarah!" Timmy Willie did not wait for Sarah +with the poker; he rushed along the skirting board till he came to a +little hole, and in he popped. + +He dropped half a foot, and crashed into the middle of a mouse dinner +party, breaking three glasses.--"Who in the world is this?" inquired +Johnny Town-mouse. But after the first exclamation of surprise he +instantly recovered his manners. + +With the utmost politeness he introduced Timmy Willie to nine other +mice, all with long tails and white neckties. Timmy Willie's own tail +was insignificant. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends noticed it; but +they were too well bred to make personal remarks; only one of them asked +Timmy Willie if he had ever been in a trap? + +The dinner was of eight courses; not much of anything, but truly +elegant. All the dishes were unknown to Timmy Willie, who would have +been a little afraid of tasting them; only he was very hungry, and very +anxious to behave with company manners. The continual noise upstairs +made him so nervous, that he dropped a plate. "Never mind, they don't +belong to us," said Johnny. + +"Why don't those youngsters come back with the dessert?" It should be +explained that two young mice, who were waiting on the others, went +skirmishing upstairs to the kitchen between courses. Several times they +had come tumbling in, squeaking and laughing; Timmy Willie learnt with +horror that they were being chased by the cat. His appetite failed, he +felt faint. "Try some jelly?" said Johnny Town-mouse. + +"No? Would you rather go to bed? I will show you a most comfortable +sofa pillow." + +The sofa pillow had a hole in it. Johnny Town-mouse quite honestly +recommended it as the best bed, kept exclusively for visitors. But the +sofa smelt of cat. Timmy Willie preferred to spend a miserable night +under the fender. + +It was just the same next day. An excellent breakfast was provided--for +mice accustomed to eat bacon; but Timmy Willie had been reared on roots +and salad. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends racketted about under the +floors, and came boldly out all over the house in the evening. One +particularly loud crash had been caused by Sarah tumbling downstairs +with the tea-tray; there were crumbs and sugar and smears of jam to be +collected, in spite of the cat. + +Timmy Willie longed to be at home in his peaceful nest in a sunny bank. +The food disagreed with him; the noise prevented him from sleeping. In a +few days he grew so thin that Johnny Town-mouse noticed it, and +questioned him. He listened to Timmy Willie's story and inquired about +the garden. "It sounds rather a dull place? What do you do when it +rains?" + +"When it rains, I sit in my little sandy burrow and shell corn and +seeds from my Autumn store. I peep out at the throstles and blackbirds +on the lawn, and my friend Cock Robin. And when the sun comes out again, +you should see my garden and the flowers--roses and pinks and +pansies--no noise except the birds and bees, and the lambs in the +meadows." + +"There goes that cat again!" exclaimed Johnny Town-mouse. When they had +taken refuge in the coal-cellar he resumed the conversation; "I confess +I am a little disappointed; we have endeavoured to entertain you, +Timothy William." + +"Oh yes, yes, you have been most kind; but I do feel so ill," said Timmy +Willie. + +"It may be that your teeth and digestion are unaccustomed to our food; +perhaps it might be wiser for you to return in the hamper." + +"Oh? Oh!" cried Timmy Willie. + +"Why of course for the matter of that we could have sent you back last +week," said Johnny rather huffily--"did you not know that the hamper +goes back empty on Saturdays?" + +So Timmy Willie said good-bye to his new friends, and hid in the hamper +with a crumb of cake and a withered cabbage leaf; and after much +jolting, he was set down safely in his own garden. + +Sometimes on Saturdays he went to look at the hamper lying by the gate, +but he knew better than to get in again. And nobody got out, though +Johnny Town-mouse had half promised a visit. + +The winter passed; the sun came out again; Timmy Willie sat by his +burrow warming his little fur coat and sniffing the smell of violets and +spring grass. He had nearly forgotten his visit to town. When up the +sandy path all spick and span with a brown leather bag came Johnny +Town-mouse! + +Timmy Willie received him with open arms. "You have come at the best of +all the year, we will have herb pudding and sit in the sun." + +"H'm'm! it is a little damp," said Johnny Town-mouse, who was carrying +his tail under his arm, out of the mud. + +"What is that fearful noise?" he started violently. + +"That?" said Timmy Willie, "that is only a cow; I will beg a little +milk, they are quite harmless, unless they happen to lie down upon you. +How are all our friends?" + +Johnny's account was rather middling. He explained why he was paying +his visit so early in the season; the family had gone to the sea-side +for Easter; the cook was doing spring cleaning, on board wages, with +particular instructions to clear out the mice. There were four kittens, +and the cat had killed the canary. + +"They say we did it; but I know better," said Johnny Town-mouse. +"Whatever is that fearful racket?" + +"That is only the lawn-mower; I will fetch some of the grass clippings +presently to make your bed. I am sure you had better settle in the +country, Johnny." + +"H'm'm--we shall see by Tuesday week; the hamper is stopped while they +are at the sea-side." + +"I am sure you will never want to live in town again," said Timmy +Willie. + +But he did. He went back in the very next hamper of vegetables; he said +it was too quiet!! + +One place suits one person, another place suits another person. For my +part I prefer to live in the country, like Timmy Willie. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF JOHNNY TOWN-MOUSE*** + + +******* This file should be named 15284.txt or 15284.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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