Drift off with this gentle bedtime story for sleep and insomnia relief, read aloud as part of Calming Anxiety's Books at Bedtime strand. Tonight's tale is The Tale of Two Bad Mice, Beatrix Potter's mischievous story of a doll's house raided by two curious mice, first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1904 — long in the public domain, with Potter (1866–1943) having died more than seventy years ago.
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In this soothing bedtime audiobook, mice Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca sneak into a beautiful doll's house while its owners are out, only to discover the tempting dinner laid out on the table is nothing but painted plaster. A gentle, unhurried classic, perfect for winding down, easing anxiety, and drifting off to sleep.
The story
Transcribed from the audio, so the odd word may be off. Tap any line while it plays to keep the words in step with Martin's voice.
Books a Bedtime by Calming Anxiety, the tale of two bad mice by Beatrix Potter.
Once upon a time there was a very beautiful doll's house. It was Red Brick with white windows and it had real Maslin curtains and a front door and a chimney. It belonged to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane, at least it belonged to Lucinda but she never ordered meals. Jane was the cook but she never did any cooking because the dinner had been brought ready made in a box full of shavings.
There were two red lobsters and a ham, a fish, a pudding and some pears and oranges. They would not come off the plates but they were extremely beautiful. One morning Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the dolls per am belater. There was no one in the nursery and it was very quiet.
Presently there was a little scuffling, a scratching noise in the corner near the fireplace where there was a hole underneath the skirting board. Tom Thum put out his head for a moment and then popped it in again. Tom Thum was a mouse. In a minute afterwards, Hunka Munka, his wife put her head out and when she saw that there was no one in the nursery she ventured out on the oil cloth underneath the cold box.
The dolls house stood at the other end of the fireplace. Tom Thum and Hunka Munka went cautiously across the hearth rug. They pushed the front door. It was not fast.
Tom Thum and Hunka Munka went upstairs and peeped into the dining room. Then they both squeaked with joy. Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table. There were tin spoons and lead knives and forks and two dolly chairs, all so convenient.
Tom Thum set to work at once to carve the ham. It was a beautiful, shiny yellow street with red. The knife crumbled up and hurt him. He put his finger in his mouth.
It is not boiled enough. It is hard. You have a try, Hunka Munka. Hunka Munka stood up in her chair and chopped at the ham with another leg knife.
It's as hard as the ham's at the cheese mungers said, "Hunka Munka." The ham broke off the plate with the jerk and rolled under the table. It had a loan said Tom Thum, "Give me some fish, Hunka Munka." Hunka Munka tried every tin spoon in turn.
The fish was glued to the dish. Then Tom Thum lost his temper. He put the ham in the middle of the floor and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel, bang bang smash smash. The ham flew into all pieces but underneath the shiny paint.
It was made of nothing but plaster. Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thum and Hunka Munka. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters, the pears and the oranges. As the fish would not come off the plate, they put into it the red hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen.
And it would not burn either. Tom Thum went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top. There was no set. While Tom Thum was up the chimney, Hunka Munka had another disappointment.
She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser, labelled rice, coffee, saygo. But when she turned them upside down, there was nothing inside except red and blue beads. Then, those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could, especially Tom Thum.
He took James clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom and he threw them out of the top floor window. But Hunka Munka had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster, she remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed. With Tom Thum's assistant, she carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth rug.
It was a difficult squeeze for the bolster to get into the mouse home, but they managed it somehow. Then Hunka Munka went back and fetched a chair, a bookcase, a birdcage and several small odds and ends. Her bookcase and the birdcage refused to go into the mouse home. Hunka Munka left them behind the co-box and went to fetch a cradle.
Hunka Munka was just returning with another chair. When suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing. The mice rushed back into their home and the dolls came into the nursery. Hunka Munka sat on the upside-down kitchen stove instead and Jane lent against the kitchen dresser and smiled, but neither of them made any remark.
The bookcase and the birdcage were rescued from under the co-box, but Hunka Munka had got the cradle and some of Lucinda's clothes. She also had some very useful pots and pans and several other things. The little girl that the dolls house belonged to said, "I will get a doll dressed like a policeman," but the nurse said, "I will set a mouse trap." So that is the story of the two bad mice, but they were not so very naughty after all, because Tom Tham paid for everything he broke.
He found a crooked six-pence under the hearth rug and upon Christmas Eve, he and Hunka Munka stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane. And very early in the morning before anyone was awake, Hunka Munka comes down with a dustpan and a broom to sweep the dolly's house. The End.