The Tale of Two Bad Mice (Beatrix Potter Originals)

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Tom Thumb set to work at once to carve the ham. It was a beautiful shiny yellow, streaked with red. As the fish would not come off the plate, they put it into the red-hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen; but it would not burn either. Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. With Tom Thumb’s assistance she carried the bolster downstairs, and across the hearth-rug. It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse-hole; but they managed it somehow.

Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table! There were tin spoons, and lead knives and forks, and two dolly-chairs—all so convenient! One morning Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll’s perambulator. There was no one in the nursery, and it was very quiet. Presently there was a little scuffling, scratching noise in a corner near the fire-place, where there was a hole under the skirting-board. Original vintage illustrations by Beatrix Potter Let’s Chat About The Stories ~ Ideas for Talking With Kids A reviewer in Bookman thought Two Bad Mice a pleasant change from Potter's rabbit books ( Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny) and believed neither Tom Thumb or Hunca Munca were completely bad, noting they both looked innocent and lovable in Potter's twenty-seven watercolour drawings. The reviewer approved Potter's "Chelsea-china like books" that were Warne's "annual marvels ... to an adoring nursery world". [3] The little girl that the doll’s-house belonged to, said,—”I will get a doll dressed like a policeman!”

Between November 26, 1903 and December 2, 1903, Potter took a week's holiday in Hastings, and, though there is no evidence that she did so, she may have taken one or both mice with her. She composed three tales in a stiff-covered exercise book during a week of relentless rain: Something very very NICE (which, after much revision, eventually became The Pie and the Patty-Pan in 1905), The Tale of Tuppenny (which eventually became Chapter 1 in The Fairy Caravan in 1929), and The Tale of Hunca Munca or The Tale of Two Bad Mice. [3] [4] [5] Potter hoped that one of the three tales would be chosen for publication in 1904 as a companion piece to Benjamin Bunny, which was then a work in progress. "I have tried to make a cat story that would use some of the sketches of a cottage I drew the summer before last," she wrote to her editor Norman Warne on December 2, "There are two others in the copy book ... the dolls would make a funny one, but it is rather soon to have another mouse book?", referring to her recently published The Tailor of Gloucester. [5] Winifred Warne and the doll's house built by her uncle Norman Warne Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could--especially Tom Thumb! He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom, and he threw them out of the top floor window. A minute afterwards, Hunca Munca, his wife, put her head out, too; and when she saw that there was no one in the nursery, she ventured out on the oilcloth under the coal-box. The book-case and the bird-cage were rescued from under the coal-box—but Hunca Munca has got the cradle, and some of Lucinda’s clothes.

A segment based on The Tale of Two Bad Mice is included in the 1971 Royal Ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter. [1] While Tom Thumb was up the chimney, Hunca Munca had another disappointment. She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser, labelled-- Rice--Coffee--Sago--but when she turned them upside down, there was nothing inside except red and blue beads. Sure, they break into the house of an inanimate object (big crime I know) and smash up her stuff. But who cares? She’s only a porcelain doll. And the two mice are only trying to feed their babies. If anything they’re the victims. They’ve been teased by the fake food in the windows and tempted by falsehood. When they realise they can’t get into it by normal means, they smash it up to try and eat it. I wouldn’t call them bad, opportunistic maybe but not bad. Are you seeking more books like this? Read our review of the Ten Best Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions Short story for kids by Beatrix Potter

It is interesting to place the reactionary morals of Two Bad Mice against Potter's life. She faced discrimination from the establishment by choosing to marry down in class and, later, by conducting her own business affairs. Quite why Potter chose to re-enforce the very morals that her actions fought against is a matter for conjecture, but it's hard to read her tales in any other way. The ham broke into tiny pieces. Underneath the shiny pink paint it was made of nothing but plaster! Hunka Munka was not so wasteful. After pulling out half the feathers from Lucinda’s pillows she decided that she needed a feather bed and, with Tom Thumb’s help, carried the pillows downstairs and across the rug. It was difficult squeezing them into the mouse-hole, but they managed it somehow.