“Where shall we go?” she whispered. “Oh, I am so afraid, and there are always those dreadful traps around to catch us!”
But they ran as fast as they could to the darkest corner. Mrs. Squeaky’s sharp little eyes saw a hole, and she ran into it, and Mr. Squeaky squeezed in after her.
Now where do you think they found themselves? Right inside of an old shoe! The hole that they came through was just a hole in the shoe and made a nice little door. And there was another hole a little higher up that made a nice little window to peep out of.
“Why, this is the dearest little house, so cozy and warm,” Mrs. Squeaky said. “Nobody will ever find us in here, I know.”
After they lived there a while, a whole family of little pink baby mice came to live with them. The papa mouse and the mama mouse were so proud and so glad, they got little bits of cotton and soft paper and rags, and made the nicest little beds you ever saw.
The little pink baby mice could only say, “Squeak! Squeak!” and cuddle up under the warm covers, but Mr. and Mrs. Squeaky laughed, and thought they were the smartest babies in the whole world.
“Why, I feel like ‘The Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe and had so many children she didn’t know what to do,’” Mrs. Squeaky said one day. She was sitting by the little window rocking the baby mouse and taking a little rest.