One day soon after Olivia and Timorous had married and little Matilda

learned how to be sure footed, there came a strange and peculiar

scratching at the door of the house in the hollow tree.

     Timorous was not home at the time and Olivia and Matilda were very

frightened.

     They peeped out through a tiny keyhole no bigger than a dot to dot dot.

Lo and behold!  There before the door was a hobo mouse with all of his

belongings tied up in a tiny polka-dotted kerchief on a stick flung over

his shoulder.

     They decided to wait until Mr. Timorous got home before they admitted

such a strange character to their home.  They took turns peeking out the

keyhold and the stranger did not move away.  He stood awhile, then sat

down and continued to wait.

     Before long Mr. Timorous Beastie came home and upon seeing the

stranger, he cried out in happiness, "It's my baby brother!"  "Oh, Hobart,

I never thought I would see you again."  Then he escorted Hobart

inside and sat him down on the best chair in the house.

     Olivia and Matilda listened to the story of the hobo and learned how

he had run away from home a long, long time ago.  He had always been

an adventurous sort of mouse and wanted to see if the moon indeed

was made of cheese.

     He had spent the last few years as a stow-away on a great and

wondrous airplane which he thought would take him to the moon.

     Each time the plane would arrive at its' destination, he would wait

un til all the passengers got off so that he could sneak quickly and

quietly away without being seen.  But, each time, just when he would

be ready and was sure everyone was gone, the plane would alight

once again, and there he was:  up, up, up into the air once again.

     Finally, after a long, long time, he managed to sneak into a lady's

purse and rolled around until he was wrapped in a tissue.  He was

able to stay hidden whenever she opened her purse.

     One day, the lady finally cleaned out her purse and threw away a

lot of things that had been there a long time.  Hobart didn't even know

if they were still on the plane, or if they were somewhere else.  First, the

lade threw out an old lipstick (which she tested one more time).  Then

out came some papers, some old receipts, and finally, the tissue with

Hobart inside.  The only problem was that the lady squished up her lips

and blotted her lipstick on that very same tissue.  Hobart narrowly

escaped getting a great big KISS on his head. 

   He had not liked living in a purse.  He had been to many, many places

with the lady and had to stay hidden away, listening to her chatter away

with her friends.  He was so lonesome for mouse talk!

     At long last, Hobart was free to go home where he belonged.  He

was no longer interested in the moon, or the cheese.

     Timorous was glad to have his brother back and Matilda and Olivia

were glad to have someone who could tell them so many enchanting

stories.

     Soon Hobart became known throughout the town as a great

storyteller.  So now the little house in the great pak tree was an  even

more happy place to be for all the little mice who had come to live there.

And who knows?  Maybe more will come, because it isn't every little

mouse who has a real house.  And it is a fact that when there are two

mice, soon there will be many, many more.