Moving the Mousehold
Hare was serving tea cakes to Ma and Pa Mouse, Raccoon, Dog, Squirrel, and Magpie. They were sitting around a stump outside Hare’s house, and Raccoon had brought tea. Ma and Pa Mouse clinked their teacups together and Pa said “Attention everyone, I have an announcement to make!”
Everyone quieted down and looked at Pa. And looked at him. And looked at him some more. Finally Magpie said “What was that announcement, Pa?”
Pa Mouse swallowed hard. “It’s just hard to talk about,” he said. “We’re going to miss you all so much.”
“Miss us?” said Raccoon. “Why would you miss us?”
“Because… because…” Pa cleared his throat. “Because we’re…we’re moving away from the forest.”
“Oh goodness,” said Dog, “where to?”
“It’s like this,” said Pa, “You all know Ralph and Betty Rat? Well, they both have good jobs at the college, you know, and we were talking to them just last week.”
“We mentioned that it’s hard to make ends meet here in the forest,” said Ma Mouse, dabbing at her eye with a corner of her napkin. “And Betty and Ralph…they’re such good friends…”
“They’ve gotten us jobs with them at the college,” finished Pa.
Everyone started asking questions at once. The details came out in bits and pieces, but eventually everyone understood that Ma and Pa Mouse had new jobs in the same lab where Ralph and Betty worked. Even though they were going to work in a college, the jobs didn’t require any advanced degrees. As Ralph and Betty explained it, they were going to be working in some sort of warehouse, going up and down the many aisles and corridors.
“Stocking up the shelves?” asked Dog, who knew about warehouses from visiting the pet supply store with her family.
“Well that’s the puzzling thing,” said Ma. “I was worried that Pa and I might be too small to carry the kinds of packages Ralph and Betty can. But they said there aren’t any shelves and there aren’t any packages.”
“Oh, I bet I know why,” said Magpie smugly. “It’s a college, not a store. In a warehouse for a store, they need shelves for boxes, and all the stuff they sell is in those boxes. But this is a college. What they have is ideas, and you can’t put ideas in a box.”
“In fact I think you’re not supposed to,” said Dog. “I’ve heard my family talking about ideas that are outside the box. That must be what they’re talking about.”
“Exactly,” said Magpie.
“My dear,” said Pa to Ma. “I think we are going to be working with ideas!”
“Isn’t that something,” said Ma. “And to think that I was just home schooled when I was little.”
“Are you moving your whole family to the college?” asked Raccoon.
“Yes,” said Pa, “the whole mousehold. It’s too far to commute when you’re our size.”
“Do you need any help moving?” asked Squirrel. “I can carry some of your stuff. Or take some of the little ones, if you want.”
“Thanks,” said Pa, “we will need some help. You accumulate more stuff than you realize over the years. Then when it’s time to move it all, it gets a little overwhelming.”
“We’ll all help,” said Dog. “If you need us all. How much stuff do you have?”
“More than you might think,” said Ma. “You’re all wonderful for offering. If you can all help I think we can get it done in only five or six trips.”
Hare looked at Dog, who was big enough to carry them all on her back if she wanted to. Even Raccoon, who was pretty sizable too. And he himself was large, for a hare, and even Squirrel was bigger than Ma and Pa put together.
“Exactly how much stuff DO you have?” he asked.
All Ma and Pa would say was “If you could stop by tomorrow morning, we can get started, and you’ll see.”
The next morning, Dog, Raccoon, Hare, Squirrel, Magpie, and even Beaver, Fox, and Owl (who had all been recruited by Magpie) were at the mousehold bright and early. Ma Mouse came out to organize everyone. “We’ve packed some boxes,” she said, “and they’re not too big, but I’m afraid there are a lot of them. Also we have some furniture. But come on in and have a look.”
To everyone’s surprise, they all fit easily into the mousehold. The boxes, which were not too big (but bigger than you might expect from the Mouse family) were piled up to the ceilings — which were much higher than anyone expected. They decided to start with the boxes. Hare and Squirrel loaded the first fifty onto Dog’s back, another 20 onto Raccoon’s, and Beaver was able to pile 25 on his wide, flat tail. Everyone else took as many as they could. They set off toward the college in a caravan, moving carefully so as not to drop anything.
The new mousehold was, luckily, even bigger than the old one. Ralph and Betty had found them a whole set of closets hidden at the back of an unused storeroom. They counted the boxes as they set them down. One hundred and twelve. Ma Mouse thanked them profusely when they insisted that she stay behind and start unpacking, with the help of the eight mouse children who had scampered along with them. Then everyone headed back to the original Mousehold.
“But it doesn’t look like we took ANY boxes yet,” said Dog when they got there. They loaded up anyway, and set off again. This time they brought 122 boxes, because they wanted to get it done. The mouse children hadn’t carried anything but their own toys, and Ma Mouse had just ridden on Dog’s head to show the way.
By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted from carrying 672 boxes, eighteen mouse-sized easy chairs, eleven mouse-sized beds, three mouse-sized sofas, a large mouse-sized dining room table with eighteen mouse-sized chairs, and six mouse-sized desks and chairs. When Squirrel discovered some rooms at the back of the mousehold with a regular-sized billiard table and piano, she declared them Too Big To Move. Magpie said she was pretty sure they wouldn’t fit in the new mousehold anyway, and Dog said somebody was sure to see them trying to move furniture that big, even if they got word to Bear, who was the only one they could think of who could carry things that big.
At the new mousehold, though, Ma Mouse explained that those things weren’t even theirs; they had come with the house. They thought the place might have been used by somebody else long before they’d moved in.
“By the way,” asked Hare, “where is Pa Mouse?”
“He started his new job today,” said Ma proudly. “He’s moving things too, but he’s lucky; they don’t weigh anything at all.”
Pa showed up as they were resting at the new mousehold, and he had Ralph and Betty Rat with him. “Thanks to all!” he said. “Ralph and Betty have a surprise for you.”
“Come this way,” said Ralph. “Quietly, please.”
They stole around a few corners and found themselves in a room all set up for a feast. “This is where they put everything after cleaning up the college cafeteria,” said Ralph. “Help yourselves. Nobody ever wants any of this stuff back.”
As they sat eating their fill, Squirrel asked Ralph “do you have any more job openings around here?”
“I don’t know,” said Ralph. “They might. But you might have to move into the dorms.”
“What’s a dorm?” asked Squirrel.
“It’s sort of a high-rise apartment building,” said Ralph. “It’s not anything like the mousehold, or like Betty’s and my place. You get your own apartment, but no privacy at all. I think it’s set up that way all over the college; I’ve heard some of the people mention the places they live, and it sounded the same.”
“Oh. Well in that case never mind,” said Squirrel, munching a cookie. “This is a nice restaurant, but I like my privacy. And I don’t think I’m ready to change jobs right now.”
Hare overheard her (Hare always overheard everyone). “Squirrel, do you have a job?” he asked.
“Of course I do,” said Squirrel. “My job is squirreling.”
“Oh,” said Hare. “I suppose it would be.”
Dog said:
“My job is quite good.
I’d explain if I could
and I wanted to boast,
but I can’t right now
‘cause I’m eating some toast.”
She stopped to finish chewing her toast.
“What job do you have, Dog?” ask Hare. “Dogging, I suppose?”
“No,” said Dog, wagging her tail. “Doggerel.”
