On a warm spring afternoon, the sun was pouring down on a lovely little garden where Molly the Mouse was planning a delightful tea party. In her tiny house up in the apple tree, she laid paper napkins and pretty little tin saucers and cups upon the table, while on a plate all ready to be put on the park bench outside she placed some stems of fresh mint, a jar of honey, and a big, fluffy cake with pink icing.
Every few minutes she paused to sniff the sunny air and listen for the sounds of coming friends. Would Clara the Squirrel be there? Bruno the Bear and Freddie the Frog? What fun they all had last year at the tea party by the bank of the brook! Suddenly she noticed two raccoons creeping along the hedge. She had never seen them before.
“Good afternoon!” she called out gayly.
They stopped and looked at her with their little black masks and their immensely bushy tails and, dipping low, made her a bow.
“I am having a tea party,” announced Molly, “and I would be so glad to have you join us.”
But after smelling the mint and the honey and the cake, one of the newcomers threw herself down upon the ground and rolled over three times, kicking her feet high in the air, while her companion laughed so that her tail nearly covered her mouth.
“That is a very funny joke!” at last said Molly, not quite knowing what to make of it either. “You see,” she smiled, “it will be so nice and cool in my house when all the good things are gone. I hope you will have the goodness to stop teasing now and just come along quietly with your tails behind you.”
But when Molly turned briskly around to lead the way the two raccoons had stood up and taken off their little masks, which they were hiding in their furry paws.
“They are not real masks at all,” cried Molly, looking back over her shoulder, “but how ridiculous!”
And really they did look ridiculous. The raccoon that was supposed to be laughing slapped her paws together and rolled over still another time, and the one who was supposed to be drowsy yawned so dreadfully that the two little girls began to laugh and clap their paws.
“Those are silly little girls,” said they, “and to think they were invited as if they were full-grown Frogs! We could just as well have walked up that nice board path they made, but we were in too much of a hurry. Did you ever see such a muddle!” and they took off their shoes and rubbed their feet till Molly began to laugh too.
“Hi! hi!” called out Bruno the Bear, “this is just our humour! Aren’t those funny raccoons? I’ve never seen such fellows before; where do they come from?” and he put on his best spectacles to gaze at them more closely.
But Clara the Squirrel paid not the least attention. “I can’t stop now,” said she. “Come with me, Molly, and see if you can find the large acorn basket I used last year. I suspect it has fallen down somewhere; or perhaps Freddie has it. What do you say, Freddie?” and putting her head out of the hole in the tree she chattered and chattered till Molly hopped up and down in delight. “Oh, she will make a lot of noise!” laughed Molly, “and it is going to make me twitch in my nice new silk dress, but come with us anyway, Freddie.”
“Never mind,” said Bruno, who had gone close up to Molly with his head held on one side. “Never mind, I will take the raccoons home with me and hear all the fun so that you may know later all that was said. I will take good care of the arrangements, so if you will let me use your acorn basket I will step over to your house for it.”
And who do you think was waiting there with an armful of white lilacs? Yes, it was Bruno. And when everything was done and the cake set upon the basket at the end of the park bench and all the prettiest specialties under the lilacs, there was a hilariously funny picture of Molly with her new dress and the two older raccoons fussing over the tea making for a minute lost in the folds of it!
Then tables were made where they could set because Bruno and Clara lived in trees, and Molly herself dug a hole by the mouth of the tunnel Freddie was with them. Later in the afternoon they all took turns at singing funny songs, Molly standing in the centre and turned herself so many ways that she nearly turned her head right off.
“And just think!” she exclaimed while they were resting, “I was the last to come, and I came because I was lost and they caught me.”
“A very special tea party I think this is,” observed Freddie the Frog, “but now you see how I saved it.”
And off they all rode one after the other, Clara with her arms full of lilacs, Bruno and the raccoons trying to help, while Freddie was so heavy himself he could hardly pull the basket of sweets after him.
“What is so splendid about skating in the winter is just as splendid on a fine spring day like this here!” Breakfast is coming my dears, and I’m longing to see your twin sisters.”