Initially published in the Alliston Herald on November 14, 2008
There was trouble in Mouseland.
The TNT hockey mice were fighting. The Alliston soccer mice were fighting too.
The head mouse of Mouseland did not like fighting. He liked it best when all the mice got along.
The head mouse liked to use his ears to listen for fights. He would then try to stop them. He would have meetings and say, "We need to do the right thing."
The head mouse sometimes dreamed that he was the head mouse of Utopia. In Utopia the newspapers only said nice things. In Utopia everyone would share and hold hands and hug and get along. In Utopia even the mouse called "Dorland" (who used to be a member of the Mouse House) would not talk too much. The head mouse wished Mouseland was more like Utopia.
The youngest Mouse House mouse from Tottenham also had dreams.
He would dream that he was the head mouse or the deputy mouse of all of Mouseland. He dreamed that cats and rats from all over would rub his tummy and take him to lunch just like they did with the real deputy mouse. This made him happy. It made him smile in his sleep.
But each morning the youngest mouse from Tottenham would wake up and realize it was just a dream. This is why he scowled. He scowled most of the time when he was awake.
The mouse from the Briar was not the oldest mouse in the Mouse House. He just looked like it.
This mouse was an eager and earnest mouse.
He liked it when other mice would rub his head and say nice things like: "You are a very important mouse" and "You are the most clever mouse in all of Mouseland".
One time, this made the Briar's mouse head get big like a balloon. It almost got as big as the noisy mouse from Beeton. He almost floated away. Honest.
After this happened the Briar mouse began to say and do silly things. He seemed to have mouse fever. He quit all of his Mouse House committees. He said the head mouse was a poor leader of mice. One time he even walked out of a Mouse House meeting before it was over. He did not get his way. He was very upset. He turned red like a lobster.
The boisterous mouse from Beeton loved being in the Mouse House. It was his most favourite place to be. But the Beeton mouse had a problem. He wanted all of the mice in Mouseland to like him. He did not want any mouse to be angry or cross with him. This made him worry and fret.
This was a problem for the Beeton mouse. This was because sometimes some mice wanted him to do one thing and different mice wanted him to do another. It was hard to do both things.
The Beeton mouse found a solution. He learned that he could stick his head in the sand. Like an ostrich. In Mouseland sand is called muck. It looked really funny to see the large mouse from Beeton with his head in the muck. But it seemed to work.
Sometimes, when he took his head out of the muck the problem was all gone and all of the mice in Mouseland still liked him.
To be continued...
