children's story

If you remember, I am writing each week for story worth, a company that at the end of a year will take my weekly writings and make them into a book.  The is like a book of memoirs, a book about your life.

Each week I get a question to answer. Last week the question was, what was your favorite childhood story?

The only children's story that I remember being read to us was the story of Bad Mousie, by Martha Dudley. I made some copies and laminated them a few years ago so that my children could know the story. Looking back on that decision, I am thinking about finding the copies and throwing them away. No children should be told the story of mousie and I certainly do not want my grandchildren to have it read to them.

In the story, Donica [a young girl] lives with her mother and a black mouse, Mousie. Mousie is bad because he has not been taught to be good. He tracks mud on the carpets. He throws her socks into the bathtub. Donica's mother throws Mousie out of the house. That night he snuck back in through a crack in the wall. But he was still bad. He spilled powder all over the floor. He tangled Donica's hair. He tipped over juice and lots of milk. The mommie gets mad again. She puts him in a shoe box and tries to drown him in her wash basin, but the wet box comes apart and he escapes. But he was still bad. He pulled the books off the shelves. He took Mommie's lipstick and wrote on the wall. Mommie is beside herself. She tied him with string to the fence in the backyard, hoping that the owl would eat him. He nibbles through the strings and sneaks back into the house. Donica is glad to see him. But, Mousie was still bad!!! He dumped the buttons out of the button box and he painted the floor with shoe polish. Mommie is gonna fix the mouse this time. She ties him onto an umbrella and lets the wind blow him away. Mousie lands on a cloud and is lonely. He wonders if he could possibly learn to be good. Eventually the cloud dissipates and Mousie falls to the earth and lands in a mud puddle. He makes his way back to Donica's house but before he goes in, he wipes his feet. Mousie asks Donica to teach him to be good, which she does. Mommie helps Mousie learn to be good too and the book ends with them all dancing round and round.

One funny note about this story, while my sister has the original book from our childhood, I bought a couple online. One of them has a stamp in it indicating that it was from the library of First Baptist Church in Belton, MO.

This book is a pretty good indicator of the atmosphere that we were raised in. Be bad, and you are out. Be good, or else.  Note that on the cover, mousie is sitting in the corner with a tear running down his face.

Not my favorite story from childhood, but the only one that I remember being read to us. May we raise our children with grace, kindness and love. May we not feed them to owls.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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