The Helpful Mouse
There were once three sisters who lived by themselves in the heart of the thick forest. The two elder sisters were mean and bad tempered, but the youngest sister was very kind hearted and helpful.
Every summer they used to go out into the forest to collect all the different kinds of berries which were there, and there were so many berries to pick that it was often growing dark before they returned home.
One summer evening the eldest sister had just filled her basket when she noticed that she had got separated from the other two. As the sun was beginning to set and the woods were starting to grow gloomy she hurried on, looking for her sisters. Suddenly she came across a small log house which she had never seen before and, feeling very curious, she knocked on the door.
“Come in my dear,” said a husky voice from inside.
She opened the door and stepped in, and to her horror there was the most enormous bear she had ever seen. She was much too frightened to try to escape.
“Please to see you, my dear,” chuckled the bear. “I like having visitors. You really must lay to supper.”
The girl just nodded, because she didn’t know what to say.
“First of all, before we start to eat, I want you to crawl into my right ear and out of my left ear. Come on, I haven’t time to waste!”
Hardly knowing what she was doing, to her surprise, found that she could squeeze up small enough to scramble into the huge bear’s right ear. Once inside, she clambered through until she found herself coming out his left ear. And strangely enough she saw that she was now holding a large bunch of keys.
“Keep them, you’ll need them later,” ordered the bear. Now lay the table and get the supper, it’s in the oven.
Without saying a word the girl laid the table and took out a pot of baked rabbit from the oven. Then the bear made her sit down to eat, although she wasn’t feeling very hungry.
While she was sitting at the table she felt a slight scratch at her leg. She looked down and saw a little mouse sitting by her foot.
“Give me a crumb of bread,” he said.
“Go away, you horrid creature,” she shuddered.
“Who is that ?” asked the bear roughly.
“Only a mouse,” she replied, afraid that he might angry.
“Kick him,” commanded the bear. And she did.
When they had finished eating the bear stretched and yawned. “It’s almost dark now. Time I was going to bed. Just make it for me, will you? You’ll find all you need in the corner; I lie on those tree trunks, I have a pile of those flints for my pillow, and I cover myself with those old mill-stones.”
Puffing and blowing, the girl managed to make the bed as the bear wanted it, and had just covered him with the last mill-stone when the light faded completely. The room was in darkness.
“You will now run up and down the room in the dark,” growled the bear. “Hold the bunch of keys so that I can hear you.”
The frightened girl began to run up and down. “Faster !” called the bear.
After a while, he picked up a mill-stone and hurled it across the darkened room. The jingling continued.
“You missed,” called the mouse.
At the bear leapt out of his bed, groped for the dead girl and ate her up.
The next day the second bad tempered sister got lost. She, too found herself in the bear’s house and exactly the same thing happened to her.
On the third day, the youngest sister arrived. After climbing in the bear’s right ear and out of his left ear she found herself holding the keys.
“You’ll be using them later, my dear,” said the bear,”after we’ve had our supper.”
When they had finished their cabbage soup and were eating their wild duck, the youngest sister felt a little scratch at her leg. And there was the mouse.
“Give me a crumb of bread,” he begged.
She thought he looked so thin that she forgot her own fear and felt sorry for him. Without the bear noticing, she dropped some bread and a little roast duck on the floor.
“Did you hear something ?” growled the bear.
“No, it’s only my chair squeeking,” she replied.
When it grew really dark she was told to make the bed as her sisters had done before her. As she pushed the last heavy mill-stone into the place the bear gave his orders.
“You must run up and down with the keys in your hand so that I know where you are.”
At the moment she heard a little scratching sound on the shelf next to her head. It was the mouse.
“Don’t afraid,” he whispered. “Give the bunch of keys to me, and climb up on top of the stove.”
The youngest sister quietly climbed on to the tall tiled stove while the mouse ran backwards and forwards along the shelf, jangling the keys.
After a while the bear grew bored and hurled a mill-stone in the direction of the noise.
“Missed,” squeaked the mouse, still running.
The bear, annoyed, sent another mill-stone crashing across the dark room.
The mouse paused. “Got her,” he called.
The bear leapt from his bed and on to the floor, in search of the body.
“I can’t find her,” he shouted.
“Then she must have slipped out of the house,” called the mouse.
With a howl of rage the bear burst open the door and rushed out into the night.
As the youngest sister slipped down from the stove the mouse called to her, “I shall lead the way back to your little house. Don’t be frightened of getting lost in the black forest; all you have to do is follow the sound of the keys.”
With beating heart she followed the jingling keys through the darkness until they arrived safe and sound at her little house.
Once inside she bolted the door, and thanked the mouse with all her heart.
“Please don’t mention it,” he said. “And now you can have anything you care to wish for, because these are magic keys.”
In no time at all the youngest sister had wished them both in a little house in a friendly village far away from the bear. And there they live to this day, and they always have everything they need.
