Henry Doormouse had just grabbed Millies fairytale book when there was a knock on the door. “Who is out and about at this time of day?” he wondered as he trudged down the stairs.
Henry opened the door to find a female brown mouse standing there, dressed in a torn sheet, he wondered who she was.
“Oh, please let me come in for a moment!” she cried hopefully.
“Come in then, who are you?” Henry asked gently.
“Thank you kind man, I am so terribly cold in this costume, our village burnt down and I have no where to go! I shall only ask for a rug which I can sleep with under that oak tree over there” she said, pointing.
“Out there?” he asked in amazement, closing the front door. He was not going to let this lady out of his house until she was warm and dry, not cold and dripping wet. “You can stay here for the night, out there is too cold, it has only ten degrees, in here, it is about twenty.”
“You are so kind, how shall I ever repay you?”
“You do not need to, your welbeing is enough.”
“You are the only person so far that have let me stay, others in Pumpkinvilles just shooed me aways!”
“You mean that you walked from Pumpkinvilles?”
The mouse nodded, she had left Woodbrook Hill at three and arrived at Pumpkinvilles at four thirtyish.
“Daddy, is this your sister Anne?” Millie asked as she stopped rocking on her rocking horse.
“No, she is-”
“I am Miss Tibitha Tidytail and you are?”
“Millie and my daddy is Henry Doormouse.”
“Nice to meet you Miss Tidytail, why are you dressed in rags?” the little girl questioned.
“Just call me Tibitha, you see, this was a costume for the school play.” Tibitha explained.
“You go to school?” Millie pressed on
“No, this was a village production”
“What is a production?”
While Millie asked more and more questions, Henry was eyeing Tibithas dress thoughtfully, somewhere…
Yes, that was it he thought as he looked through a pile of things and raced up the stairs to show the two mice his find.
“Would you like to wear this ?” Henry asked, showing Tibitha a lovely pink dress.
“May I?” Tibitha asked, her face shone with joy as she touched the soft fabric carefully.
Henry arranged a bath and soon Tibitha was soaking in the warm water happily. After about ten minutes of warming up, she got out looking much cleaner and happier.
She got dressed in the dress which fitted perfectly.
Next she found a soft bit of floor and curled up, wanting to go to sleep when Millie came into the room and dragged her down the stairs to her father.
On the table sat a cup of tea, two biscuits and a slice of bread for her. “I made those biscuits by myself!” Millie said proudly.
“Mmmm, they are so yummy!” Tibitha exclaimed to the delight of the little girl.
Soon, everyone was chatting and Tibitha found out where she was and all about the village and villagers and Millie and Henry found out all about her and her village. After only ten minutes though, the tea had been drunk and the food eaten.
Henry created a sort of couch bed while Tibitha played with Millie who introduced her to Colin, Kitty, Quakie and all the others.
After about half an hour, Henry had finished and saw that both of the female mice looked very tierd so he asked them if they would like to go to bed which they did.
“Daddy, Tibitha may feel lonely, should I sleep with her?” Millie asked hopefully.
“What a splendid idea! You can sleep on that chair Millie” Henry pointed.
“Where is your mama Millie?” Tibitha asked sleepely,
“I do not have one, I am an orphan, Daddys my only family”Millie mumbled
“I am sorry” Tibitha whispered as she drifted off to sleep.
Everything was now dark and quiet as the villagers of Basswood Creek slept soundly. Henry however was still awake, thinking over what had happened this evening, he tried to keep awake to see if Millie was stirring but slowly, he too was fast asleep.
What do you think? Tibitha is one of my favourite figures now, gosh, I am doing a lot of stories at the moment! I want to create a village photo sometime as well… At the moment, I feel very motivated to blog 🙂
Emily
What a sweet story Emily! I´m not surprise Tibitha is one of your favourite figures. She is adorable.The poor thing must have gone through a very bad time because of the fire. She was lucky to knock at Henry´s door.He is such a nice man! He was so kind to her…and Millie is such a cute little mouse. I love the picture where she is fast asleep! I wonder if Henry and Tibitha will become “good friends” in the future 🙂
Yes, I think they will be good friends but you never know do you?
Emily
Hello Emily,
I enjoyed this story very much!! 🙂
The characters are so lovely and kind. I hope Tabitha and Henry will get to know each other better and stay together as a family, so that Tabitha can be Millie’s new Mum.
Tabitha is sooo cute, and she has a Quackie, too, just like Jemima! (Maybe the two ducks are related?) 😉
Have a great weekend,
Nina
And back again!! I forgot to say, like Cutata, I love the photo with Millie sleeping (she’s the cutest llittle mouse ever!) and the one with Tabitha in the bathtub (she seems to relax and really enjoy the warm water!). 😀
Thank you, Tibitha was very happy to finally be out of the harsh weather.
Emily
Yes, I think Millie was telling me about Quakies family tree the other day, I think the twos are cousins or something similar, I will ask Millie. I hope that Tibitha will marry Henry someday but they are both very shy mice.
Emily
I meant Millie has a Quackie, too, of course. Not Tabitha. 😉
Yes, Millie has Quakie, Tibitha would like to have one herself though.
Emily
😉