A Squeak!
I’m only a little brown mouse
That lives in somebody’s house,
And in that same house there’s a cat;
But oh, ho! what care I for that?
She sits in the sunshine,
And licks her white paws,
With one eye on me,
And one on her claws.
How she watches the crack
Where she sees my brown back!
But she’ll never catch me!
For oh, ho! don’t you see
That I’m just the smartest young mouse
That lives anywhere in the house?
I’m only a little brown mouse
That lives in somebody’s house,
And in that same house there is Rover:
He has chased me the whole house over.
And there, too, is fat Baby Tim;
But oh, ho! what care I for him?
When he sprawls on the carpet,
And bumps his pink nose,
I scamper around him,
And tickle his toes.
How he kicks and he crows!
For he knows, oh, he knows,
That I’m only a little brown mouse
That lives in his grandmother’s house.
I’m only a little brown mouse
That lives in somebody’s house;
And in that same house there’s a clock,
That says, “Tick-a-tock, tick-a-tock!”
And I’ve not forgotten yet quite,
How once, on a very still night,
I was sitting just over the clock,
When it gave such a terrible knock,
With a whirring and whizzing,
And buzzing and fizzing,
That I tumbled headlong from my perch on the shelf,
And, scampering wildly, I crowded myself
Right under the door, through such a small crack,
That I scraped all the hairs off the top of my back.
Oh, I am the merriest mouse
That lives anywhere in a house!
I love toasted cheese, and I love crusts of bread,
And bits of old paper to make a soft bed.
Oh! I tell you it’s nice
To be one of the mice,
And when the night comes,
And the folks are abed,
To rattle and race
On the floor overhead.
And, say, don’t you wish you could run up a wall
As I do, every day, without getting a fall?
And don’t you wish you were a mouse,
Living in somebody’s house?