Once upon a time, there was a beautiful doll’s house. With red bricks and white windows, the doll’s house had muslin curtains, a front door, and a chimney.
The two dolls that the house belonged to were Lucinda and Jane. Jane was the cook, but she never cooked anything, because they always had ready-made meals in boxes.
There were two red lobsters, a ham and a fish, a pudding, some pears and oranges. They were beautiful, but would never come off the plates.
One morning, Lucinda and Jane ventured out for a ride in the doll's pram. The nursery lay empty, enveloped in silence. Suddenly, a faint rustling emanated from a corner by the fireplace, near a gap beneath the skirting-board. Tom Thumb cautiously peeked out, then swiftly retreated back into hiding.
Tom Thumb, a mouse.
A minute later, Hunca Munca, Tom Thumb's wife, also emerged cautiously. Observing the nursery's vacancy, she ventured onto the oilcloth beneath the coal-box.
Across the hearthrug, on the opposite side of the fireplace, stood the doll's house. Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca proceeded carefully. They pushed the front door which was unlocked.
Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca took the stairs, and peeped into the dining room. They were in joy! They loved the beautiful dinner table - and saw the tiny spoons, the knives and the forks, and two dolly-chairs! Oh so convenient!
Tom Thumb immediately started carving the ham. It was shiny yellow, and streaked with red. The knife hurt him however, and he put his finger in his mouth. “It is not boiled enough! It is too hard! You should try, Hunca Munca.”
Hunca Munca stood on her chair, and began chopping with another lead knife. “It is hard, just like at the cheesemonger’s!”
The ham broke off the plate with a jerk, and fell down the table. “Leave it!” said Tom Thumb. “Give me some fresh fish!”
Hunca Munca tried everything, but the fish was glued to the dish. Tom Thumb now lost his temper. He put the ham on the floor, and hit it with the shovel and the tongs - bang, bang! Smash, smash! The ham was now in pieces, and underneath the shiny paint was only plaster!
Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca were furious and disappointed. They broke up the lobsters, the pudding, the pears and the oranges. Frustrated by the fish refusing to budge from the plate, they attempted to dispose of it in the blazing crinkly paper fire in the kitchen. However, even the flames failed to consume it.
Tom Thumb climbed up the kitchen chimney and peeked out at the top, but there was no soot there.
Meanwhile, while Tom Thumb was up the chimney, Hunca Munca had a disappointing discovery. She found some tiny canisters on the dresser labelled "Rice," "Coffee," and "Sago." But when she turned them upside down, they contained nothing but red and blue beads.
Then the mice started causing mischief, especially Tom Thumb. He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom and threw them out of the top floor window. But Hunca Munca, being more thrifty, decided to make use of things. She pulled half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster and then remembered that she needed a feather bed herself.
With Tom Thumb's help, she carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth-rug. It was a tight fit to squeeze the bolster into the mouse-hole, but they managed it somehow.
THEN, Hunca Munca went back and brought a chair, a bookshelf, a birdcage, and some other small things. But the bookshelf and the birdcage were too big to fit into the mouse-hole.
Hunca Munca left them near the coal-box and went to get a cradle.
When she returned with another chair, they heard people talking outside in the hallway. The mice hurried back to their hiding spot, and the dolls entered the nursery.
Jane and Lucinda were surprised by what they saw. Lucinda sat on the overturned kitchen stove, wide-eyed, while Jane leaned against the kitchen dresser, smiling, but neither of them said anything.
Hunca Munca had managed to grab the cradle and some of Lucinda's clothes.
She also took some pots, pans, and other useful items.
The little girl who owned the doll's house said she would get a doll dressed like a policeman.
But the nurse wanted to set a mouse-trap.
And that's the story of the two mischievous mice, but they weren't too naughty in the end because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke. He found a sixpence under the hearthrug and on Christmas Eve, he and Hunca Munca put it in one of Lucinda and Jane's stockings.
Every morning, before anyone wakes up, Hunca Munca comes with her dustpan and broom to clean the doll's house.
THE END