The Lonely White Mouse

Father mouse watches his eight children play.

       Once upon a time there were ten little gray mice-a father, a mother, and  eight  children.  They lived in the cellar under the house. And what good times they had playing Farmer in the Dell together at night on top of the tool box! 

The nice lady made the white
mouse a grey suit to play in.

       Upstairs in the house lived a little. white mouse. He was lonely because he had no one to play with. He belonged to a nice lady who kept him snowy clean and brushed his hair every morning. But that did not make him happy. He was the loneliest mouse in the world. 

       Sometimes at night he would creep down in the cellar and watch the little gray mice playing Tag in and out among the paint cans. But they did not ask him to play with them. And so he would come creeping back in the morning feeling even more lonely than before. 

       One night he caught a little gray mouse by his tail and held him and said to him, "Why don't you ever ask me to play?" 

       "Would you like to play?" asked the gray mouse in surprise. "We thought you were afraid that you would get your white fur dirty." 

       The white mouse looked sadly at his beautiful fur and said, "Must I always be lonely just because I am white?" 

       The gray mouse felt sorry for the white mouse. "Perhaps the lady would make you a gray suit to play in," he said. "Then you would be gray like the rest of us."

       "Just the thing!" said the white mouse, and he went scuttling upstairs to ask the lady. 

       The lady said, "Oh, yes! I will be glad to make you a suit!" She liked to sew doll clothes, but she had never thought of sewing mouse clothes. She made him the cunningest little gray suit that you could imagine! 

       After that the white mouse went down in the cellar every night. And what fun he had playing Follow the Leader with the gray mice in the coal bin! Of course, his face and hands were very dirty every morning. But they were easy to wash, you know. 

       The little white mouse was never lonely any more. by Marion LeBron.