Mouse

By Daniel S. Knowles

Join the mice again in this ninth mouse book as they embark on more adventures. Read about Foul-Smelling Bob who, while taking a shower, was attacked by a reptile that came out of the showerhead.
Romules finds a dead body in a closet in a new house that he had purchased.
A living head from a dead mouse is attached to the living body of Lone Wolf Mouse who had a dead head due to a deadly accident.
Drool and his gang of toughs battle the Grouch Anderson Gang in coal bin.
Flight 100 falls into Mousetown Bay.
Stenny and Honest Ape land their place on the top of Niagara Falls.
Duck Paddler walks across the Cheese Finder River, just like another biblical figure had done a long time ago.
Johnny Seed comes to town to spread his stuff.
Wanda Gizzard blows up like a balloon when she is stung by a bee.
A small Gila monster comes out of Toddy's mouth at a local eating place.
Shank Edwards swallows a knife at the Down Trodden Cafe.
Read about the Ghost ship that sailed into Mousetown Bay.
Grandma Snouser turns into a large reptile.
Why did the MTPD, the MOusetown Police, give headless mouse a traffic ticket for speeing in his car?
Why is Bull Roar devoured by his close friend and training buddy at the gym, Throckmorton, a pet frog?
These stories and many others are just waiting for you to take a gander at the read BUT REMEMBER, READ THE STORIES AT YOUR OWN RISK. There is some violence and death in some of the chapters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781453596319

Daniel S. Knowles

n/a

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Daniel S. Knowles.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2010916492

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4535-9630-2

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4535-9629-6

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4535-9631-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

85921

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

FOUL-SMELLING BOB IS KILLED WHEN A POISONOUS SNAKE COMES OUT OF THE SHOWERHEAD IN HIS BATHROOM AND BITES HIM IN THE HINDQUARTERS

CHAPTER TWO

WAR COMES TO MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER THREE

THE SHIP THAT BECAME AN ICEBERG

CHAPTER FOUR

ROMULES MOUSE FINDS A DEAD BODY IN A CLOSET OF THE NEW HOUSE THAT HE HAS JUST PURCHASED

CHAPTER FIVE

BALD-HEADED ED RUNS OUT OF GAS ON A LONELY DIRT ROAD

CHAPTER SIX

EDUCATION SPECIALIST BUTRID STOOL FALLS TO HIS DEATH FROM A FIFTH-STORY CLASSROOM IN FRONT OF HIS FIFTH-GRADE CLASS

CHAPTER SEVEN

PILLSBURY JENKINS DROPS A DEAD BODY OFF AT THE POLICE STATION, RINGS THE BELL AT THE FRONT DOOR, AND THEN RUNS OFF INTO THE NIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT

SQUIRE BUCKETHEAD’S HEAD IS REMOVED FROM HIS DEAD BODY AND ATTACHED TO FRITZ LONE WOLF’S LIVE BODY IN A SENSATIONAL OPERATION PERFORMED BY DOCTORS EZARD CHAUMAREY AND ZEAKE TURMOIL AT RODENT GENERAL HOSPITAL IN MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER NINE

RAPSCALLION MOUSE WANTED TO DIE, SO HE FLEW A SMALL AIRPLANE OUT TO SEA UNTIL IT RAN OUT OF GAS

CHAPTER TEN

ALPHONSE MOUSE IS FOUND DEAD IN HIS CAR ONE DAY AT CADBURY OVERLOOK

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO DREW CARROT AND HIS CAR?

CHAPTER TWELVE

MOUSE OF THE CLOTH, NUN CASSY CATTING, PURCHASES A USED HEARSE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

DROOL EDWARDS AND HIS GANG MEET THE GROUCH ANDERSON BOYS IN THE COAL BIN AT SCHOOL TO DUKE IT OUT

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE PLANE THAT LANDED

IN THE PUMPKIN FIELD

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FLIGHT 100 FALLS INTO MOUSETOWN BAY

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CLAD CROMWELL INVITES HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS TO HIS HOUSE TO FIRE THEIR SHOTGUNS AT HIS NEIGHBORS’ HOUSES

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

GRANDMA GERTIS SAVES HER GRANDCHILD, HASKINS, FROM A CROCODILE IN THE CATNIP RIVER

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

STENNY BASSETHOUND AND HONEST APE LAND THEIR PLANE ON TOP OF NIAGARA FALLS

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A ROCK HITS A TOUR BOAT IN THE CHEESEBURGER RIVER

CHAPTER TWENTY

A FOUL SMELL IN THE CHIMNEY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

DUCK PADDLER WALKS ACROSS THE CHEESE FINDER RIVER

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

KINGFISHER YANTZ, MUNCH WILLIAMS, AND THE BOYS FIND A SUBMERGED CAR IN THE STORM SEWERS UNDERNEATH MOUSETOWN WITH FOUR DEAD BODIES IN IT

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A SMALL GILA MONSTER COMES OUT OF TODDY BOHUNK’S MOUTH

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

LITTLE CHARLIE BOMB JOINS THE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT IN MOUSE OAKS AND BLOWS UP THE DUCK BROTHERS DEPARTMENT STORE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE SEVEN FATHERS AND ONE DEACON TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS IN THE MEAN STREETS OF MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

DOCTOR JAY CLIJSTERS, WHILE SITTING ON A PARK BENCH, NOTICES A RODENT PICKING DAISIES IS SWALLOWED BY A GREEN-AND-YELLOW VIPER

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

STEP HOOFER AND HIS SALVAGE BOAT GO TO THE NORTH SEA TO RESCUE SOME SEA LIONS FROM A WRECKED SHIP

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

JOHNNY SEED COMES TO MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

THE RATTLESNAKE JOHN GANG ROB POO’S ART GALLERY

CHAPTER THIRTY

WANDA GIZZARD BLOWS UP LIKE A BALLOON WHEN SHE IS STUNG BY A BEE

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

SHANK EDWARDS SWALLOWS A KNIFE AT THE DOWN TRODDEN CAFÉ

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

HEN PECKER MOUSE IS FOLLOWED AROUND BY HIS PET WOLF, RABID, FOR SEVEN YEARS

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

SOMETHING FALLS FROM THE SKY ON WHERE THE RODENTS FROM BLACK DOG HIGH ARE HAVING A PICINIC

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

A GHOST SHIP COMES INTO MOUSETOWN HARBOR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

TAXI DRIVER BEN CRICKET HIDES A DEAD BODY IN A FISH POND

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

THE WOLF JACKSON GANG AND THE MUNGER EDSON MOB GET INTO A RUMBLE AND BURN THEIR SCHOOL DOWN

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

A RED RUBBER BALL GOES OVER RODENT FALLS WITH GERM MOUSE INSIDE

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

DEACON DUD BRINGS AN AIRPLANE WITH 163 PASSENGERS ABOARD DOWN ONTO THE RODENT SEA

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

HANG WOO AND FOO YOUNG TRY TO ASSIST CHOW YEE, WHO WAS BITTEN BY A POISONOUS SPIDER FROM A POT OF EGG DROP SOUP

CHAPTER FORTY

GRANDMA SNOUSER TURNS INTO A LARGE REPTILE

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

MOUSETOWN POLICE STOP A SPEEDING CAR AND GIVE A TRAFFIC TICKET TO A HEADLESS RODENT

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

A LOCAL POLAR BEAR COMES INTO PIP PIPESTONE’S HOUSE AND WATCHES TV

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

SCROT SOCK PULLS OVER THE MOUSETOWN CLOCK TOWER WITH HIS TOW TRUCK

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

A BLACK BEAR FLOATS INTO

MOUSETOWN HARBOR ENCASED IN A LARGE PIECE OF ICE

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

BULL ROAR IS DEVOURED BY HIS FRIEND THROCKMORTON THE LARGE FROG

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

BAD CLAD IS OUT TO SHOOT SOME GAME UNTIL THE GAME GETS HIM FIRST

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

DOCTOR ADAM APPLE CRASH-LANDS A CORPORATE JET PLANE IN THE MOUSETOWN HIPPADROME DURING A PAW BALL GAME

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

MICE LINE UP TO CLIMB INTO A LARGE CANNON TO BE FIRED UP TO TEN MILES OUT INTO THE OCEAN

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

PLUMBER BEN POSINER USES A STICK OF DYNAMITE TO UNCLOG A TOILET IN REVEREND THORNDIKE WILLOWBEE’S BATHROOM

CHAPTER FIFTY

NINETY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD HORACE CRUMPLER DIES WHEN HE IS BITTEN BY A POISONOUS VIPER THAT SLITHERED INTO HIS CAR AT THE AUTO DEALERSHIP

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

FELIX HENPECKER IS ABOUT TO LEAP OFF A TWO-HUNDRED-FOOT-TALL ROCK INTO THE SEA GULL SEA WHEN THE BATTERIES IN HIS HEART STOP AND AIDES HAVE TO PUT NEW ONES IN BEFORE HE CAN JUMP

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

LYLE LIGHTBULB AND CUD HOUCH STEAL AN AMBULANCE WITH A DEAD BODY IN IT

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

A WHALE COMES IN FROM THE OCEAN AT GOOD HARBOR BEACH AND SWALLOWS NESBIT HOLLINGWORTH’S NEW BLUE CAR

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

CHIEF VEITH IS PLEASED WHEN HIS FIRE MICE GET A PET TIGER TO RIDE THE FIRE ENGINES

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

WAGGS MCPEAN IS RUN OVER BY A TRAIN AND DOCTOR LEGGS PAW BALL TRIES TO SAVE THE RODENT’S LIFE

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

HOLE IN THE HEAD IS SLEEPING ON A PARK BENCH WHEN A CAR CRASHES INTO A FOUNTAIN NEARBY AND A SEVERED HEAD LANDS ON HIM

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

A GOOD MOUSE AND A WRONG-HEADED MOUSE THAT WENT ON A DIFFERENT PATH

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

SNAKE HANDLER CARRIES A RATTLESNAKE ON HIS MOTORCYCLE

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

SHAMOO THE ELEPHANT FALLS INTO THE RAPIDS AND GOES OVER THE RODENT RAPIDS

CHAPTER SIXTY

FAT WHONEY WALKS A HUNDRED-FOOT-LONG TIGHTWIRE STRETCHED BETWEEN TWO HALF A MILE HIGH CLIFFS WITH THE PUMPKIN RIVER BELOW

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

DOCTOR DIGBY BONE GOES MAD WHILE PERFORMING AN ORTHOPEDIC OPERATON AT MOUSETOWN GENERAL HOSPITAL

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

WHAT HAPPENED ON SKULL ISLAND?

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

WHY DID FIGHTER PILOT BUD SNEAKER BREAK FORMATION AND FLY INTO THE MOUNTAINS NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN?

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

STEVE CELLULITE DRIVES A TAXI WITH A COW IN IT TO DELIVER MILK TO HIS CUSTOMERS

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

THE HENPECK GRUFF BOYS AND THE STUDS BOW WOW GANG STAY IN THE OLD SHOE HOTEL AND DIG A TUNNEL INTO THE BRUTUS GALLERY TO STEAL THE THOUSAND CARAT DIAMOND

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HITCHHIKER MS. PRISS?

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

THE LUXURY SHIP, SARA ROACH, CATCHES FIRE AT THE DOCK IN MOUSETOWN AND THEN ROLLS OVER ON ITS SIDE

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

A PARTY OF MICE IN BAT CAVE FIND A BEAR WITH A BROKEN LEG AND CALL FOR A TOW TRUCK TO PULL IT OUT OF THE CAVE AND UP THREE THOUSAND FEET TO THE SURFACE WHERE DOCTOR ROCK IS WAITING

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

AN ICE-COVERED AIRPLANE WITH A FROZEN PILOT FLOATS IN FROM THE SEA AT GOOD HARBOR BEACH

CHAPTER SEVENTY

JEFF HOUND IS WALKING ALONG ON THE GROUND WHEN HE HEARS A DOG BARKING BENEATH HIM AND IS CONCERNED

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

HERMIT CRAB GROWS A LONG BEARD THAT TRAILS BEHIND HIM A FULL FORTY FEET

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

BAT ANDERSON IS THE LONE SURVIVOR WHEN A UNITED MOUSE AIRLINES PLANE EXPLODES OVER THE SEA OF RODENTS

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

LANGHORN SMALLRAT AND HIS GIRLFRIEND ARE CONFRONTED BY THE WOLF GANG BOYS AT THE BASE OF SUICIDE CLIFF

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

RODENTS GET OFF THEIR COMBINES IN THE WHEAT FIELDS AROUND MOUSETOWN DURING HARVEST TIME AND BATTLE WITH EACH OTHER WITH BRASS KNUCKLES, BELTS, AND BATS

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

OLD STUMP CRAWLS AROUND THE STREETS OF MOUSETOWN TERRORIZING THE CITIZENS

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

HARRY ROACH GOES INTO A ROADHOUSE AND FINDS THAT EVERYONE INSIDE IS A LIVING SKELETON

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

BAD CLAD SHOWS GOOD CLAD HIS PET POISONOUS SNAKE

CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

BEAVER TAIL’S NEIGHBOR, JOE PUNK, THREATENS BEAVER TAIL’S DOG, BOWINK

CHAPTER SEVETY-NINE

PONDEXTER BUYS A NEW CAR AND THEN, AFTER A DRIVE ALONG THE SHORE ROAD, IS NEVER SEEN AGAIN

CHAPTER EIGHTY

RUNNY GOOSE FINDER IS RUN OVER BY A CONCRETE TRUCK AS HE IS WALKING ACROSS THE STREET TO PURCHASE AN EGG ROLL

CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

SNODSMITH AND BURT BEE FIND A LARGE BLACK BEAR IN THEIR TENT WARMING ITSELF UP BY THE STOVE

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

PETER SPENDS THE BETTER PART OF HIS LIFE HITTING A CINDER BLOCK WITH HIS PAWS

CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

FINEGOLD MOUSE RESCUES A WORKER FROM A TALL CRANE

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

SISTER OF THE CLOTH MARTHA ROACH PURCHASES A USED HEARSE FROM A USED-CAR DEALERSHIP

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE

SNAKES TAKE OVER THE MASS AT ONE CHURCH IN MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

A LARGE ALBATROSS FOLLOWED

THE CRUISE SHIP THAT MONTGOLLER ARCHMEDES WAS ON

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

WHILE SEARCHING FOR THEIR DEAD FRIEND, HANS, AND HIS CAR ON FROZEN LAKE WHIMP THE RODENTS OF MOUSETOWN DECIDE TO HAVE A PICNIC

CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

LUCY YOGDRASSEL IS HIRED BY THE MOUSETOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT BECAUSE HE HAS ONE EYE IN THE FRONT OF HIS HEAD AND ONE EYE IN THE BACK OF HIS HEAD

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

MR. LOON HIRES SOME TRAINED VULTURES TO FIND THE BODY OF HIS SON MOLLUSK

CHAPTER NINETY

DENNY DIMWIT AND CRAIG BYCYCLE STEAL AN AIRPLANE FROM THE MOUSETOWN AIRPORT

CHAPTER NINETY-ONE

RODENT FALLS IS FROZEN SOLID, SO THE RODENTS CAN GO ICE-SKATING

CHAPTER NINETY-TWO

CHEESEPAW IS THROWN OFF A BRIDGE INTO THE BLUE BONNET RIVER BY AN ATTACKER

CHAPTER NINETY-THREE

LITTLE EZZARD WORTHINGTON PEERS THROUGH A KEYHOLE IN HIS FRONT DOOR JUST AS TONY VERMIN FIRES AN ARROW THROUGH IT

CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR

A SHIP CARRYING WHISKEY CRASHES INTO A ROCK OFF GOOD HARBOR BEACH CAUSING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF RODENTS TO FLOCK THERE

CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE

SOME CLOSE FRIENDS GO INTO THE STORM SEWERS BENEATH MOUSETOWN AND HAVE A PARTY

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

PETER AND HIS GIRLFRIEND, SARA RODENT, ARE IN DEED’S HOE DOWN’S CAFÉ WHEN A TRUCK CARRYING A LARGE LIZARD CRASHES INTO IT

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

PEG LEG JOHN AND THE GREENBACK BOYS EYE A LOCAL BANK TO ROB

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

A SEA SERPENT CRAWLS OUT OF THE SEA AND LAYS AN EGG

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

A SLEEPWAKING RODENT, CADBURY, WALKS OFF A CLIFF IN THE SMALL TOWN OF HONSDALE NEAR MOUSETOWN

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED

BIX GUSTAVE, HARGESHIMEN JONES, AND GOOSE BIBBY STEAL THE ONE-MILLION-TON IRON ORE CARRIER THE LAKE FREIGHTER, VIOLENT PIG, THEN ATTACH A LARGE CHAIN TO THE FRONT OF THE SHIP AND THE OTHER END AROUND THE KEMP KOLLODGE LIGHTHOUSE, THEN PULL IT WITH THE SHIP OVER INTO THE BAY OF APES BECAUSE THE REVOLVING LIGHT ON THE TOP FRUSTRATES BIBBY’S WIFE, BEE CRIBBAGE, WHEN SHE IS TRYING TO SLEEP AT HER HOUSE ACROSS THE BAY

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND ONE

FOOLISH JOHN GOES TO SLEEP FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS

CHAPTER ONE

FOUL-SMELLING BOB IS KILLED WHEN A POISONOUS SNAKE COMES OUT OF THE SHOWERHEAD IN HIS BATHROOM AND BITES HIM IN THE HINDQUARTERS

Foul-Smelling Bob really did not smell, he just thought that he did, so he took a shower at least four times a day to make sure that he was a mouse of strong personal hygiene and ensure that he would be respected as an important mouse of the community, and a clean one at that. Bob had a towel service that would come to his house and take away the used ones and bring new clean ones. Bob sometimes would use up thirty or forty towels in one function; he went through a lot of soap and had hundreds of bars of soap on paw, lined up to use. Bob used water from the putrid black swamp behind his house so that he would not have to pay to use city water, thus saving several dollars every month. The swamp was full of insects and contained hundreds of snakes of all sizes—green snakes and black and brown ones—along with some Gila monsters and other hideous reptiles. It was said that the reason that Bob smelled like he did was because of the swamp in the rear of his house and all the reptiles in it, and that is why the rodent took his showers like he did.

There was one snake in the swamp that was over twenty feet long, and sometimes it could be seen sunning itself on the bank of the swamp. Of course, being that there was no sun in the skies over Mousetown, the snake used the rays from some of the emeralds buried in the ground nearby to keep warm.

Bob would walk the streets and turn the corners in Mousetown and rodents would look at him and say to themselves There is that Bob. I better put a clothespin on my nose so that I will not admit any foul smells into my nasal cavity that Bob may put out.

Bob was well-known in the city, and when the average rodent saw him coming, he or she would take off running. Bob did not have many friends, only a few rodents would talk to him, and they wore masks so that no one would recognize them.

One day, the rodent was in the shower for the third time that day. He liked bubble bath and had plenty of it. There were bubbles up to his waist, and as he took a brush with a long handle on it to wash his back, he felt something crawling on his shoulder. Bob looked back and saw that there was a large black snake coming out of the showerhead. The rodent felt a bite in his hindquarter and then fell down on the shower floor, and shortly after that, he didn’t remember anything.

When the rodent’s body was discovered, at first it was unclear whether he died of a natural death or from the large black snake that was found sleeping on top of his body. The sleeping snake was carried to the swamp behind the house, and Bob was carefully picked up and also carried away. Because he was sort of a recluse type of fellow and had no kin or friends, he too was dumped in the black swamp. The officials that dumped the rodent’s body watched as it slipped slowly down into the smelly, murky water then disappear into the snake-infested cesspool-like water. Then the rodents read a few words from the Good Book and turned to leave.

CHAPTER TWO

WAR COMES TO MOUSETOWN

Crumpler Gartersnake Mouse, a fairly shiftless and independent rodent about town, was walking along Route 198 Way, a well-traveled road that wound through the countryside north of Mousetown. There was a lot of traffic, and many trucks were speeding by him at a high rate of speed. One truck was going so fast that it blew his blue hat off his head, and Crump watched as it landed on top of a tractor trailer and disappeared down the road.

Crump continued on his way. He was on his way to visit his lady friend Viper Djokovic, who lived about a mile down the road to help her do some knitting. Crump would usually drive, but he had hit a bird in the middle of the road several days earlier and killed the poor thing. It had upset him so much that he decided to stop driving and just walk from now on. He had rushed over to the bird and administered snout-to-snout rescue procedures to no avail. Then he threw the bird to the side of the road and jumped up and down for several minutes and shook his paws. He had left his car in the middle of the road, and a truck ran into it and pushed it over an embankment into a duck pond. Crump had seen the car sink to the bottom of the pond and threw his car keys into the water, just missing some ducks floating by in the water. He was too old to drive anyway. He was pushing ninety now and had arthritis—mainly from his old war injuries from the Ant and Bat Wars many years earlier when Mousetown was at war in what was known as the Great War, a bitter war that went on for years in which Crump served in and was awarded his town’s highest award, the congressional mouse medal. For much of his life, he had walked around the city turning the corners and strutting around in the streets and showing his medal to everyone he saw. Why, even now as he was walking down the road in the midst of all the heavy traffic, he was wearing the medal, displaying it to all the passing vehicles, and in return, some of the drivers were honking their horns and waving to the old war hero, and he would wave back and grin. He had put the fallen bird in his pocket and was on his way down the road.

Crump must have stepped out into the roadway, or maybe a vehicle strayed too far on the right, but the wheels of an eighteen-wheeler tractor trailer hit the rodent, and Crump sailed through the air, unseen by any of the motorists on the road that day, and the poor rodent landed on top of a large milk truck heading west toward town. Crump landed with a thud, denting the roof of the trailer, putting a large crease in the thin metal roof. The rodent lay motionless in a heap, unconscious, as the truck pulling the large trailer filled with milk behind it went down the road. No one could see the crumpled body of the rodent lying up there.

The body of the war hero lay still. He had died along with the bird inside his pocket that he had picked up off the road earlier. But Crump’s brain was at work, and it was going a mile a minute. And he was dreaming of the good old days when he was younger and on a ship preparing to climb down a rope net into a smaller boat along with other army soldiers from the Mousetown’s First Division, one of the most decorated divisions of the war. He was a green private in the army having been thrown out of high school, and burning down the school one night to get even, he had chased the principal of the school, Principal Pennington, with a poisonous snake. He joined the army rather than go to jail, and now he and the others were aboard a large transport ship, the Thirsty Skull. Crump was one of twenty thousand mice that were preparing to storm the shore at Good Harbor Beach to fight the ants that had attacked Mousetown in the unprovoked war that now raged across the land, and in a few minutes, he would be a part of it. I can dig it, said the brave rodent, holding up his rifle with a bayonet at the end of it, and Crump fired a bullet up into the air, just missing a bird flying overhead.

Crump was one of thousands of young rodents armed to the teeth that climbed into the small boats that would take them to shore so that they could fight the ants there, who were also armed to the teeth. Down the net, leading to a small boat that was rocking up and down in the water, went the rodent, and when the boat was full, it motored away from the troop ship, made a few circles in the water, and started toward the beach. Shells were dropping into the water all around the mice, and water splashed into the boat on top of the guys. Crump held tightly to the machine gun that he was carrying. He wanted to kill as many of the enemy as he could, and he pointed the gun up into the air and burst a round of bullets off, spraying empty shells all over the rodents near him. Crump was in the first wave to hit the beach and proud of it. He could not wait until he saw the white eyes of the enemy and started giggling. He was going to shoot as many of them as he could, until his trigger paw was too tired to pull it anymore. The rodent could smell gas in the air from canisters of gas that the enemy had fired from shore and slipped his gas mask on.

Some of the small boats on the way to shore were hit and sunk or burst into flames, and dead rodents were floating on top of the water. Crump’s boat slid up onto the sandy beach, and the ramp was lowered. The rodents, gripping their weapons, ran through the ankle-deep water and up onto the beach, stepping over dead and dying and injured rodents. Crump stepped right in someone’s brain matter and shrugged it off. ‘Tain’t no big deal, he told another rodent, trying to act cool. Then he ran with other guys up to a trench filled with armed ants and sprayed them until his machine gun was out of bullets. Then he took the empty gun and began to swing it around cracking skulls. He saw an eyeball from one of the dead dudes flying through the air and caught it. He put it in one of his pockets and then picked up a flamethrower from a dead mouse and ran up to another trench and opened it up, killing all the enemy in the trench and leaving only crispy critters. This went on all day, and by nightfall, Crump had nearly five hundred kills. He would be awarded at a special function later the top medal for his service in the war, the Medal of Honor with the picture of Ratminster Trout engraved on it.

Crump found a pillbox with a machine gun in it and ran up to the opening and pulled the gun out. Then he emptied the gun onto the ants inside. There was a thunderous explosion, and it blew up, sending bodies and other debris everywhere. Everywhere there was paw-to-paw fighting as the rodents and the ants battled each other. Planes were dropping bombs on the beach, and rodents were jumping in holes and bomb craters, but not Crump. He stood his ground on the beach, and he fired away at everything around him with the enemy machine gun that he had taken. When he was out of bullets, he saw, lying in the sand, the jawbone of a cow and picked it up and used it to strike the enemy as