Nibbles Tells His Story

  My name is Nibbles and I live during the day, in the pocket of Hans the shoemaker. Boys and girls, do you remember the story of how I saved the day. I almost lost my two front teeth , tripping over my big feet running out the door with the two rubies in my mouth.


The Princess loves her beautiful new shoes, with the rubies that Hans had made for her wedding day.  The King and Queen were so impressed with Hans' workmanship that they invited Hans to bring his work shop into the palace to make shoes for all the servants.  Hans was very grateful for the invitation, but he told the King that he would go ONLY if I could come too. Arrangements were made for both of us and we soon found ourselves living the the King's palace.  However, what I didn't know was that the princess had a huge white cat, who wasn't very nice.  I knew right from the start that,, "that cat" didn't like me and if he had a chance, I would be his dinner!

Fortunately, there was a whole battalion of field mice in the place.  I first meet Lt.Squeaky, who told me about "that cat".  He said that I really had to be very careful because "that cat" was watching every move I made. When I moved to the palace, Hans bought a cage for me to sleep in at night.  The last thing at night before Hans went to bed, he would slip down the latch of the cage, tickle me under my chin and pat me on my head saying, " Good night little feller, I will see you in the morning."

One night after Hans had left for bed, I saw "that cat" slowly crawling, one paw in front of another toward my cage.  My little legs were shaking so hard.  Before I knew it, the cage door was open and that "that cat" teeth was ready to eat me.  It's teeth looked so sharp and his mouth was wide open.  Without thinking I just started to run and yelling at the top of my voice. help, help!

 It  happened that night that Lt.Squeaky was on duty and heard my cry for help.  He quickly blew the trumpet and rounded up the mice.  The mice battalion kept "the cat" distracted, chasing them around the work shop, knocking over paint cans, shoe buttons and leather strips onto the floor, while  Lt. Squeaky quickly cut a  mouse hole in the corner of the work shop.When it was finished, Lt. Squeaky signaled to the battalion to retreat, grabbed me and headed for the hole. Once inside , I felt like I could breath again.  "What ever happened, Nibbles," asked Lt Squeaky.  I told him that I didn't know how "that Cat" opened the cage door.  Lt. Squeaky knew. "Remember, Nibbles, when I told you how "that Cat "is always watching?  He had figured out how to lift the latch to get to you.." 

"How could I ever feel safe again"? I thought to myself, when Lt. Squeaky spoke up and said to me,"Your cage is not a safe place for you any more,but I have an idea for you. At night, you can come through the hole I made for your escape, and sleep with us. What do you think about that?"  It was more than kind of Lt. Squeaky to care about me.  From that night on, I spent my days with Hans in his pocket and at night with the mice.