Read Bless this Mouse for Free Online

into the pocket of an overcoat that was draped across a chair during a lecture. He had fallen asleep there. Next thing he knew, the overcoat, and its owner, Father Murphy, transported him to Saint Bartholemew's and he had been there now for several months.
    It wasn't much different from the library, actually. Pocket crumbs to eat still, and he had made himself a nice nest from some shredded hymnal pages. He wasn't fond of crowds and tended not to attend meetings (on the night Hildegarde had gathered the mouse congregation in Father Murphy's office, he had stayed behind, eaten some small tobacco flecks that he'd been saving, and gone to sleep), but he understood what was happening now and was preparing, like the others, to leave.

    Harvey, the little whiny mouse, sought him out and pulled at his tail to get his attention. There were few things Ignatious hated more than having his tail yanked. He turned irritably and said, "What?"
    "They told me to ask you what
exodus
means." Harvey folded his paws politely and looked up with big eyes.
    "
Departure,
" Ignatious replied. "It's Greek." Actually, he could forgive a tail yank if someone was genuinely seeking knowledge. And he remembered Greek fondly, from the university library. He had nibbled quite a bit of Greek. "An ancient language."
    "Greek?" Harvey giggled, and said it several times. "Greek? Greek?" It was so close to
squeak
that it amused him. Ignatious gave him a meaningful dark look and he subsided.
    "It means 'the departure of large numbers.'"
    "Of mice?"
    "In this case, mice."
    "Why?"
    Ignatious sighed. He knew that once a young one started with
why
there would be many
whys
to follow. "Because we're in danger. We have to escape."
    "To where?"
    "Outdoors."
    Harvey squealed nervously. "
Outdoors?
"
    Ignatious held up one paw in a STOP gesture because he could see that Harvey was about to ask
why
again. Ignatious liked imparting knowledge, but he found a litany of
whys
annoying.
    "Go," he said. "Stay with your mother and siblings. If you run off by yourself, you might never find your way back here. I myself made a foolish mistake once in leaving the university library, and..." He stopped himself. Too long a story. Not of interest to young ones.

    "Oh, we're coming back?" Harvey asked.
    "Of course. When the danger is past. Now GO!"
    So Harvey scampered off to find his mother, chattering away, telling everyone what he had learned—"It means 'departure'! We're going away in a large group! To Outdoors! We're escaping danger! We'll be coming back! It's Greek! Greek's an ancient language!"—until finally someone swatted him on his rear and told him to shut up.
    They all slept on Tuesday, all day, preparing themselves for what lay ahead.
    Then it was Tuesday night and time to go. They left under cover of darkness, led by Hildegarde, with Frederick and Jeremiah dashing along the side of the procession, back and forth, keeping everyone in order and silent. No singing allowed. Mothers helped their children. Even Harvey was quiet and wide-eyed. Then, silently, they flattened themselves and more than two hundred mice squeezed under the heavy wooden front door of Saint Bartholemew's, out into the night, into Outdoors.

Chapter 7
Yikes! Outdoors!

    When he realized why the church mice were all jumping about and giggling, Roderick explained. "It's grass," he told them. "It's called grass."
    Almost none of them had ever seen, or felt, grass before. It tickled as they made their way through it in the night.
    "Is this Outdoors?" Harvey squealed. "Is this what Outdoors is like?" He dashed about in the grass.
    "Yes. Shhh. Come this way!" Hildegarde called. "To the churchyard cemetery!"
    ***
    "This is quite an ordinary grass," Ignatious muttered, as he strode along, talking to anyone who was listening. "The correct name is
monocotyledonous graminoids,
by the way. That's Latin. I spent quite a bit of time in the botany section of the university library. Nibbled quite a few books about