Tiddlywink the Mouse

the friends had to eat a lot of chocolate cake. Twenty-five layers of cake! My goodness!

  Afterwards, Tiddlywink vowed to never eat chocolate again. On his way home, after trodding through the jungle and skipping across the fields, he was just about to reach the riverbank when BAM! He ran smack into a big red cloud.

  "Hey", Tiddlywink yelled, "Watch where you're going!"

  "You watch where you're going, little mouse" shouted the angry red cloud. "Or I'll drop down and cover you in redness".

  "Oh my", said Tiddlywink, "never mind", and he leaped into his matchbox and set sail for home, leaving the angry red cloud behind him on the shore.

  Next time, Tiddlywink told himself, I'll be a little more careful about clouds.

  Tiddlywink and the Mushrooms

  One hot summer day, Tiddlywink decided it was a time to find some mushrooms. So he sailed across the river in his matchbox, scrambled onto the bank, scampered across the fields and over the hills, into the forest. There he began to search very carefully. Fortunately he brought his binoculars, so it wasn't very long before he spotted them - a whole gaggle of mushrooms which were congregating around a walnut tree. Tiddlywink tiptoed up behind them and then said,

  "Knock knock".

  The mushrooms said,

  "Who's there", and he replied,

  "Tiddlywink".

  "Tiddlywink who?" asked the mushrooms.

  "Tiddlywink the Mouse" he said, and the mushrooms screamed,

  "AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!", and ran away as fast as their little stems could carry them. They ran and ran until they came to a bakery, where they jumped into a pie, and told each other to hush.

  Tiddlywink had some training as a detective, so he knew the mushrooms would most likely try and hide inside a food establishment of some sort, considering that they themselves were considered a food item by some. Having established this theory, he reasoned that the best place to look would be a bakery, because he was hungry and liked chocolate very much. It was fortunate that he brought along his microscope, because that made it much easier to spot the mushrooms, which were hiding in the bottom of a mushroom pie. But first Tiddlywink ate several chocolate cupcakes and even a brownie or two. Then he scooped into the pie and said

  "Aha!"

  "AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" yelled the mushrooms, and they leaped out of the pie and zoomed across the road as fast as their little stems could zoom.

  The mushrooms dashed into the first place they came to, which turned out to be a Chinese restaurant, and they hid in the bottom of a barrel full of bean sprouts. This turned out to be a good choice, because even though Tiddlywink brought his telescope, it did not occur to him that mushrooms would consider a bucket of sprouts. He was pretty sure that mushrooms and bean sprouts did not like each other very much and would not be able to hide together, especially in a barrel. Too bad.

  He looked all around the restaurant and did not notice when the Monster Mushroom Truck came by and picked up the barrel of bean sprouts and carried them away. Tiddlywink finally gave up looking for them, and headed for home, but just as he got to the riverbank, BAM! He ran smack into a chocolate cloud. Now he was covered from head to toe in gooey, slimy, yummy, sticky chocolate. He had to jump in the river and shake shake shake, and scrub scrub scrub, and shake shake shake some more, then finally roll around in the grass until he was all nice and clean. Then he boarded his matchbox and sailed for home.

  The Dream of the Red Bush

  One day Tiddlywink the Mouse decided he wanted to find a red bush, and as soon as he thought of it, he realized he had had a dream about that very thing. In his dream, he was in a hat, sailing down a river, in the company of a cricket, a grasshopper, and a frog. The cricket was talking about a game where you swung a stick at clouds. The grasshopper was talking about sweet green juice and butterflies. The frog was talking about a job where you roll as far as you can. Tiddlywink asked where they were going.

  "Do we have to tell you everything?" asked the cricket.

  "Well, okay then", said the grasshopper, "we are going to find a red bush."

  "A red bush?" said Tiddlywink. "That's amazing! I had a dream where I was trying to find a red bush!"

  "Don't be silly", said the frog. "This is the dream."

  "No", said Tiddlywink, "In my dream I was climbing a ladder, and I kept going up and up and up. It seemed the ladder was not attached to anything. As I was climbing, I met a bumblebee (named Bruce) who asked me why I was climbing the ladder to infinity."

  "Doesn't it go anywhere?" I asked him, and he said,

  "Well, some people say that at the end of the ladder to infinity, there is a red bush".

  "That's astounding!" declared Tiddlywink. "I recently had a dream about a red bush".

  "Certainly", replied the bee, "this is the dream."

  "No, it's not", said Tiddlywink. "In the dream I was driving a pink truck and I was heading west. The sun was setting and the glare was in my eyes. Behind me was a red car, driving too close (a BMW, I think), and his lights were on and they were also bothering my eyes. Suddenly in front of me I saw a red bush."

  "In the dream?" asked the bee.

  "In the dream?" asked the frog.

  "In the dream?" asked the butterfly

  "No" Tiddlywink said as he sipped on the sweet green juice. "It was right there in front of me. At least I think it was."

  Tiddlywink and the Horizon

  Tiddlywink decided that he would like to visit the end of the world, the place where the sky meets the ground, so he set sail in his matchbox for the other side of the river. There, he scampered across the fields and over the hills and into the woods, and through the heart of the jungle, but he got no closer to the horizon. Aha, he thought, the horizon sees me coming and is running away. I will hide from it. So he crept behind trees and kept close to the ground and sneaked as best he could, but still he got no closer.

  This is taking too long, he thought. I must find a better way. He decided he should fly to the horizon, but not on a bird, because birds are often not nice to mice. I know, he thought, I will fly on a cloud. So he ran to the top of the highest hill and climbed to the top of the tallest tree, and waited for a cloud to fly on. Finally, after a very long wait, a green cloud came by and Tiddlywink asked if he could go for a ride.

  "Sure", said the cloud, "hop on", but when Tiddlywink tried to hop on, he fell right through and back onto the tree. He tried and tried many times, but the cloud had nothing to hang on to, so he had to give up.

  "Try a blue cloud", the cloud suggested, "they often have handles on them".

  Tiddlywink waited and waited for a blue cloud. These are very hard to see, especially on a nice sunny day when the sky is blue, because the blue clouds are usually the same color as the sky. After a long time, he thought he saw one, and he yelled out to it

  "Hey, Mr. Cloud. Can I fly with you to the end of the world?"

  "Sure" replied the cloud, "hop on and grab on to my handle".

  So Tiddlywink hopped on and grabbed a hold of the handle, and off they flew towards the horizon. It took a very long time to get there, and when they finally arrived, it was nighttime. The sky was black and the cloud was black and the horizon was black as well. Tiddlywink thanked the cloud and hopped off. He was surprised to find that the end of the world was very much like his home, with fields and streams and trees and hills.

  Tiddlywink had to find a way home from the end of the world, but in the dark he couldn't see any clouds. He called out, over and over, to any cloud that might be passing by, but no one answered for a long time. Then he heard a voice saying,

  "Is that you, Tiddlywink? What are you doing here at the end of the world?"

  "I'm having an adventure", the mouse replied, "but who are you?"

  "Ah", the voice replied, "I am the chocolate cloud who always bams you at the riverbank, just when you are about to climb aboard your matchbox. I was just on my way to see you there. Do you want a ride?"

  "Yes, thank you very much", said Tiddlywin
k, and off they rode through the night on the long journey back to the riverbank. Tiddlywink had to sink deep into the gooey, sticky, creamy chocolate and by the time they got to the river he had to jump right in, and shake shake shake, and scrub scrub scrub, and shake shake shake some more, and jump out of the river and roll into the grass until he was all nice and clean again.

  Then he waved to the chocolate cloud and thanked him for the ride. After that he went home, and had two plates of spaghetti, four chocolate cupcakes, and two glasses of milk, and then he went to sleep.

  Tiddlywink and the Sea Monster Attack

  One day Tiddlywink and Jeremy were sailing on the sea. They sailed all day and into the dusk, when Jeremy mentioned he was sorry they hadn't found any peanuts and hot sauce yet.

  "What do you mean?" asked Tiddlywink.

  "Well", Jeremy explained, "the last time I went sailing on the sea I had some peanuts and hot sauce and they were delicious. I was hoping we would find some more today."

  "I don't know what you're talking about", said Tiddlywink, "there are no peanuts or hot sauce in the ocean. What were you doing the last time you were sailing?"

  "Nothing", said Jeremy, "I was