THE TALE OF MRS. TITTLEMOUSE

 Once upon a time there was a woodmouse, and her name was Mrs. Tittlemouse.

 

She lived in a bank under a hedge.

 

Such a funny house! There were yards and yards of sandy passages, leading to store- rooms and nut cellars and seed cellars, all amongst the roots of the hedge.

 

There was a kitchen, a parlor¹, a pantry, and a larder².

 

Also, there was Mrs. Tittle- mouse's bedroom, where she slept in a little box bed!

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse was a most terribly tidy particular little mouse, always sweeping³ and dusting the soft sandy floors.

 

Sometimes a beetle⁴ lost its way in the passages.

 

"Shuh! shuh! little dirty feet!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse, clattering⁵ her dustpan.

 

And one day a little old woman ran up and down in a red spotty cloak.

 

"Your house is on fire, Mother Ladybird! Fly away home to your children!"

 

Another day, a big fat spider came in to shelter from the rain.

 

"Beg pardon, is this not Miss

Muffet's?"

"Go away, you bold bad spider! Leaving ends of cobweb all over my nice clean house!"

 

She bundled the spider out at a window.

 

He let himself down the hedge with a long thin bit of string.

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse went on her way to a distant storeroom, to fetch cherrystones and thistle- down seed for dinner.

 

All along the passage she sniffed⁶, and looked at the floor.

 

"I smell a smell of honey; is it the cowslips outside, in the hedge? I am sure I can see the marks of little dirty feet."

 

Suddenly round a corner, she met Babbitty Bumble—"Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz!" said the bumble bee.

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse looked at her severely⁷. She wished that she had a broom.

 

"Good-day, Babbitty Bumble; I should be glad to buy some bees- wax. But what are you doing down here? Why do you always come in at a window, and say, Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz?" Mrs. Tittle- mouse began to get cross.

 

"Zizz, Wizz, Wizzz!" replied Babbitty Bumble in a peevish⁸ squeak⁹. She sidled down a passage, and disappeared into a storeroom which had been used for acorns¹¹.

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse had eaten the acorns before Christmas; the storeroom ought to have been empty.

 

But it was full of untidy dry moss¹².

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse began to pull out the moss. Three or four other bees put their heads out, and buzzed fiercely.

 

"I am not in the habit of letting lodgings¹³; this is an intrusion!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse. "I will have them turned out —" "Buzz! Buzz! Buzzz!"—"I wonder who would help me?" "Bizz, Wizz, Wizzz!"

 

—"I will not have Mr. Jackson; he never wipes his feet."

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse decided¹⁴ to leave the bees till after dinner.

 

When she got back to the parlor, she heard some one coughing in a fat voice; and there sat Mr. Jackson himself.

 

He was sitting all over a small rocking chair, twiddling his thumbs and smiling, with his feet on the fender.

 

He lived in a drain below the hedge, in a very dirty wet ditch.

 

"How do you do, Mr. Jackson? Deary me, you have got very wet!"

 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! I'll sit awhile and dry myself," said Mr. Jackson.

 

He sat and smiled, and the water dripped off his coat tails. Mrs. Tittlemouse went round with a mop.

 

He sat such a while that he had to be asked if he would take some dinner?

 

First she offered him cherry- stones. "Thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! No teeth, no teeth, no teeth!" said Mr. Jackson.

 

He opened his mouth most unnecessarily wide; he certainly had not a tooth in his head.

 

Then she offered him thistle- down seed—"Tiddly, widdly, widdly! Pouff, pouff, puff¹⁵." said Mr. Jackson. He blew the thistle- down all over the room.

 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! Now what I really—REALLY should like— would be a little dish of honey!"

 

"I am afraid I have not got any, Mr. Jackson!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse.

 

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse!" said the smiling Mr. Jackson, "I can SMELL it; that is why I came to call."

 

Mr. Jackson rose ponderously¹⁶ from the table, and began to look into the cupboards.

 

Mrs. Tittlemouse followed him with a dishcloth, to wipe his large wet footmarks off the parlor floor.

 

When he had convinced himself that there was no honey in the cupboards, he began to walk down the passage.

 

"Indeed, indeed, you will stick fast, Mr. Jackson!"

 

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs.

Tittlemouse!"

First he squeezed into the pantry.

 

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly? No honey? No honey, Mrs. Tittlemouse?"

 

There were three creepy-crawly people hiding in the plate rack. Two of them got away; but the littlest one he caught.

 

Then he squeezed into the larder. Miss Butterfly was tasting the sugar; but she flew away out of the window.

 

"Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse; you seem to have plenty of visitors!"

 

"And without any invitation!" said Mrs. Thomasina Tittlemouse.

 

They went along the sandy passage—"Tiddly, widdly—" "Buzz! Wizz! Wizz!"

 

He met Babbitty round a corner, and snapped her up, and put her down again.

 

"I do not like bumble bees. They are all over bristles," said Mr. Jackson, wiping his mouth with his coat sleeve.

 

"Get out, you nasty old toad¹⁷!" shrieked¹⁸ Babbitty Bumble.

 

"I shall go distracted!" scolded Mrs. Tittlemouse.

 

She shut herself up in the nut cellar while Mr. Jackson pulled out the bees-nest. He seemed to have no objection to stings.

 

When Mrs. Tittlemouse ventured to come out—everybody had gone away.

 

But the untidiness was something dreadful—"Never did I see such a mess—smears of honey; and moss, and thistledown—and marks of big and little dirty feet— all over my nice clean house!"

 

She gathered up the moss and the remains¹⁹ of the bees- wax.

 

Then she went out and fetched some twigs²⁰, to partly close up the front door.

 

"I will make it too small for

Mr. Jackson!"

She fetched soft soap, and flannel²¹, and a new scrubbing brush from the storeroom. But she was too tired to do any more. First she fell asleep in her chair, and then she went to bed.

 

"Will it ever be tidy again?" said poor Mrs. Tittlemouse.

 

Next morning she got up very early and began a spring cleaning which lasted a fort- night.

 

She swept, and scrubbed, and dusted; and she rubbed up the furniture with bees- wax, and polished her little tin spoons.

 

When it was all beautifully neat and clean, she gave a party to five other little mice, without Mr. Jackson.

 

He smelt²² the party and came up the bank, but he could not squeeze in at the door.

 

So they handed him out acorn¹⁰ cupfuls of honeydew through the window, and he was not at all offended.

 

He sat outside in the sun, and said—"Tiddly, widdly, widdly! Your very good health, Mrs. Tittlemouse!"

1 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

2 larder   

n.食物贮藏室，食品橱

参考例句：

• Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
• They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。

3 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

4 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

5 clattering   

发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Typewriters keep clattering away. 打字机在不停地嗒嗒作响。
• The typewriter was clattering away. 打字机啪嗒啪嗒地响着。

6 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

8 peevish   

adj.易怒的，坏脾气的

参考例句：

• A peevish child is unhappy and makes others unhappy.一个脾气暴躁的孩子自己不高兴也使别人不高兴。
• She glared down at me with a peevish expression on her face.她低头瞪着我，一脸怒气。

9 squeak   

n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another squeak out of you!我不想再听到你出声！
• We won the game,but it was a narrow squeak.我们打赢了这场球赛，不过是侥幸取胜。

10 acorn   

n.橡实，橡子

参考例句：

• The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。
• The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

11 acorns   

n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Great oaks from little acorns grow. 万丈高楼平地起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Welcome to my new website!It may not look much at the moment, but great oaks from little acorns grow! 欢迎来到我的新网站。它现在可能微不足道，不过万丈高楼平地起嘛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

13 lodgings   

n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍

参考例句：

• When he reached his lodgings the sun had set. 他到达公寓房间时，太阳已下山了。
• I'm on the hunt for lodgings. 我正在寻找住所。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

16 ponderously   

参考例句：

• He turns and marches away ponderously to the right. 他转过身，迈着沉重的步子向右边行进。 来自互联网
• The play was staged with ponderously realistic sets. 演出的舞台以现实环境为背景，很没意思。 来自互联网

17 toad   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆

参考例句：

• Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
• Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。

18 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

19 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

20 twigs   

细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
• Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。

21 flannel   

n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服

参考例句：

• She always wears a grey flannel trousers.她总是穿一条灰色法兰绒长裤。
• She was looking luscious in a flannel shirt.她穿着法兰绒裙子，看上去楚楚动人。

22 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。