The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mouse and The Moonbeam, by Eugene Field

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Mouse and The Moonbeam

Author: Eugene Field

Release Date: January 4, 2009 [EBook #27697]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOUSE AND THE MOONBEAM ***

Produced by Louise Hope, David Edwards and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

THE MOUSE
AND THE MOONBEAM

[Illustration]

THE MOUSE
AND THE MOONBEAM

By
Eugene Field

NEW YORK
1919

Copyright, 1912

by Charles Scribner's Sons

Through the courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons,
we were permitted to print this small private edition.

--GIFT--

[Decoration]

THE MOUSE AND THE MOONBEAM

Whilst you were sleeping, little Dear-my-soul, strange things
happened; but that I saw and heard them, I should never have
believed them. The clock stood, of course, in the corner, a
moonbeam floated idly on the floor, and a little mauve mouse
came from the hole in the chimney corner and frisked and
scampered in the light of the moonbeam upon the floor. The
little mauve mouse was particularly merry; sometimes she danced
upon two legs and sometimes upon four legs, but always very
daintily and always very merrily.

"Ah, me!" sighed the old clock, "how different mice are nowadays
from the mice we used to have in the good old times! Now there
was your grandma, Mistress Velvetpaw, and there was your
grandpa, Master Sniffwhisker,--how grave and dignified they
were! Many a night have I seen them dancing upon the carpet
below me, but always the stately minuet and never that crazy
frisking which you are executing now, to my surprise--yes, and
to my horror, too."

"But why shouldn't I be merry?" asked the little mauve mouse.
"Tomorrow is Christmas, and this is Christmas eve."

"So it is," said the old clock. "I had really forgotten all
about it. But, tell me, what is Christmas to you, little Miss
Mauve Mouse?"

"A great deal to me!" cried the little mauve mouse. "I have been
very good a very long