Once a little mouse lived in a tiny house under a hedge. This little mouse was called Minnie, and she was a good, kind little mouse who always liked to help others to be happy. It was a sunny summer’s morning when she sat at the door of her house, looking out across a beautiful meadow.
Suddenly she spied something lying among the tall grass that grew beside the meadow path. She placed her little hands on her cheeks and said, “Oh, what can this be? It looks like a baby bird, and it must have fallen from its nest,” for she could see by the feathers that it was a little bird. Then Minnie said, “It may be that the poor little thing is hungry,” and she ran into her house and came out with a piece of bright pink daisy which she grew in her garden close by. The little bird opened its mouth, and Minnie placed the piece of daisy inside, watching to see if it could eat. And eat it did, with the greatest of pleasure.
Minnie stayed with the little bird all through the day until the sun began to set. But the longer she looked at it, the more very, very sad she grew, for the little bird had no nest to go to at all. “Perhaps,” said she, “it could sleep at my house till its feathers grow, and it can fly away.”
So Minnie the Mouse took the little bird in her arms, and hopping slowly along the path, up to her tiny house under the hedge she carried it.
“What mouse is this I hear?” said her old fatherly friend Uncle Lion, who lived at the edge of the meadow. It was he who saw all that happened first, and didn’t know at all where the little bird had come from. So when Minnie got into her house he came cantering up to the door, and put his head inside.
“Little Bird, Little Bird,” he called, “won’t you tell me how you got here?”
“I am not a Bird!” cried Minnie.
“No, I guess you are not,” answered Uncle Lion. “But where did you get this little Bird who has come to sleep with you tonight?”
Then Minnie told Uncle Lion all about the little bird, and at once he thumped his great tail up and down against the meadow path, with pleasure, and said, “You are a very kind little Mouse, I must say. This little Bird’s home is miles and miles away over the sea. And perhaps the cruel old Crow already knows that it has fallen to the ground. Well, let us hope he will not come this way.”
“Will he be safe here till tomorrow morning?” asked Minnie.
“Oh yes,” said Uncle Lion, “for I am going to place myself at the end of this path till the morning comes, and so keep a look out.”
Now that was very good of Uncle Lion, so Minnie the Mouse kissed the little Bird good-night, and went to sleep all curled up outside her house. As soon as day broke, she jumped up and called out, “Little Bird, Little Bird, have you had a good night?”
“Oh yes,” cried the little Bird, “I have had a very good night, indeed.”
Then out flew Uncle Lion’s head, for he thought the little Bird was going to say how happy he had been with little Minnie. Then Minnie the Mouse ran into the house, and Uncle Lion came jumping towards the meadow, waving his tail for joy.
“I have had a good night,” said the little Bird. “Tell Minnie, if you please, to give me some breakfast. I do not feel at all strong. It was a long way that I came before I fell under the hedge.”
So out ran Minnie the Mouse with her piece of bright pink daisy. And while the little Bird was eating, she quickly ran up to the top of the meadow to make Uncle Lion a breakfast for all that day. So she prepared him some daises, and some salad, and some thistles; some buttercups, and some daisies; and some blackberries, and some thistles, and she also brought back a big apple such as people give to horses, and divided it in half, that he might have a nice big coat on.
So Minnie the Mouse jumped and jumped and jumped the whole way to Uncle Lion where he lay at the end of the path guarding her little Bird from danger. At first Uncle Lion was very cross. “Oh,” he said, “I cannot say that I like mice, and I cannot say that I like vegetables. All mice are husky, and all vegetables are very poor food. I want some milk, my good girl, and nothing else.”
But Minnie only laughed at his saying he did not like him. “Come,” she said, “come with your huge great head, come, I pray you; it is best for us to be friends, and I would like you to come and breakfast with me in my house across the meadow.” “That, I think,” said Uncle Lion, “will be a better idea.”
As soon as Minnie the Mouse saw that Uncle Lion was going to come with her across the path to her tiny house, she ran back, and fetched a white pink daisy to be his walking stick, for Minnie was dressed in her very best clothes that her kind Grandpa gave her when she was married.
Now when the little Bird had breakfasted well from the hands of Minnie and Uncle Lion, it thanked them and bid them good-bye.
Then Uncle Lion put his head down through the little door of Minnie’s tiny house and said, “Good-bye”, and off the little Bird flew across the meadow towards the place by the sea where it lived, singing for more than a mile as he flew along.
And as soon as Uncle Lion had seen the little Bird fly out of sight, he started off through the forest to see if he could get a drink and a dinner before the sun set behind the hills. But he had scarcely gone far when he heard a sad little voice calling from behind. So he turned round, and it was Minnie the Mouse crying out that she would like him to come to her house, and have a nice cup of milk without saying what mice were, and a nice ready prepared nicely buttered jam toast that she had made for his tea. But Uncle Lion preferred his own kind of food best, and said he was used to more royal ways of living; and that when he got to know her well he would call upon her puppy dog page instead.
Now poor Minnie the Mouse was quite tired with running to and fro all day. But the next day and for many days Uncle Lion sent some breakfast of daises and sometimes apples to her tiny little house, and drank his milk and ate his jam toast without saying a single word.
“I will be just like the Bird,” said Minnie, “that is, I won’t say anything at all.” But one day Uncle Lion broke his silence, and said, “Have you had a good night’s sleep, Princess Play-Mouse?”
“I never sleep at nights,” said Minnie.
And from that hour they were quite happy together.