The Church Mice

Once there was a very small Church in the country. Not many people went there, even on Sunday’s, so it was very quiet. It was so quiet that two mice decided to go and live there. “No cats or dogs” said one of them. “No children rushing about” said the other. So one moonlit night they moved in, and found a nice roomy hole behind the pulpit.

At first food was a little difficult. They had been used to cake crumbs under the tea table, and scraps on the kitchen floor, and now they had to look for something else.

They found the candles, tall white candles in big brass candlesticks on a shelf behind the altar. The candlesticks had a little gallery round the top, and the mice found that they could climb up the wooden carving and just reach the brass gallery, which made a good landing stage. Then they stood on their hind legs and nibbled away at the candles. They were good candles, made of pure wax, and the mice like them. They nibbled all round each one as high as they could reach, and this gave the candles a very small waist in that place.

The lady who came in to clean the Church once a week was very shocked to find candles looking like that. She put in new ones, and she moved the candlesticks forward on the shelf so that the mice could no longer reach them from the carving behind. They were rather put out.

But the lady who cleaned the Church had a kind heart, and she started taking long drips of wax off the candles when she cleaned them, and put them down a crack behind the pulpit. The mice found them and were pleased, and with grass seed and such things that they found outside they lived quite comfortably for some time.

Then came a day when there was a great disturbance. A lot of people arrived, and there was much talking and moving about. The mice stayed quietly in their hole, rather alarmed.

In the evening, when all was quiet again, they came out cautiously, and could hardly believe their eyes. The little Church was turned into a garden, with fruit and flowers and vegetables everywhere. There were two sheaves of corn, a pyramid of red and green apples; there were great fat marrows and pumpkins, and mounds of potatoes and glossy skinned onions. There were scarlet tomatoes and a wooden bowl filled with walnuts, a great bunch of grapes, and even a beautiful loaf with fat plait along its back. The mice squeaked with joy, and had a real feast. They also took some nuts and some ears of corn down into their store room.

The next evening there was a great concert, with much singing, and many people moving about. The mice stayed hidden till it was all over, and then they had another feast. They thought they were in clover for the rest of their lives.

But, oh dear, the following day it was all taken away, and the Church well cleaned, so that they had to go back to a diet of candle wax, and whatever else the could find in the churchyard outside. It was autumn, and there were quite a lot of berries about, but as winter drew on, food got very short, and it became very cold. The mice slept much, curled tight together for warmth. The days were short, and the nights long and dark.

Then came another day when people arrived to decorate the Church. The mice knew what to expect this time, and they crept out at evening eager to see what was done. It was quite different, but very pretty, with garlands of holly and ivy everywhere, and jars of big jolly chrysanthemums.

But what was this? A little building had been set up in the corner, quite tiny, with a thatched roof, and straw on the floor. There were little people and animals in it, made of craved wood. They were coloured and very pretty, and there was the dearest little baby, snug in a crib of hay. The little building had a small lamp as bright as a star hung just above it, and all round were berry laden branches of holly.

The mice moved in at once. It was so cosy in the straw, much warmer than their hole, and there was a permanent supply of food outside. They carried the berries in as they needed them, and ate then hidden away in the corner. No one ever suspected they were there. There was another concert, with much singing – very jolly tunes this time, and everything was lovely for about a week.

Then people came to clear away. The mice knew the signs, and moved back to their hole. They had practically finished the berries on the holly by then anyway.

The lady who cleaned the Church took the carved figures and wrapped then up carefully and put them in a box until next year. Then she cleaned out the little stable, and there in a corner under the straw she found piles of seeds from the holly berries, all hidden away. “Bless my soul” she exclaimed. “I wondered were the berries were going. It’s those mice – they’ve slept warm and fed well over Christmas just like the rest of us! And they’ve been so careful and they haven’t upset a thing, bless them! I think I’ll pop an old candle end down the hole now and again after this”

And so she did, and what between Harvest and Christmas and the kind hearted lady who cleaned the Church, those two mice lived very comfortably, thank you, for the rest of their lives.