The Witches

Not far above my head there was a handle sticking out from the side of the garbage bin. Still clutching the bottle, I gave a LEAP, turned a somersault in the air, and caught hold of the handle with the end of my tail. Suddenly there I was swinging to and fro upside down. It was terrific. I loved it. This, I told myself, is how a trapeze artist in a circus must feel as he goes swishing through the air high up in the circus tent. The only difference was that his trapeze could only swing backwards and forwards. My trapeze (my tail) could swing me in any direction I wanted. Perhaps I would become a circus mouse after all.

Just then, a waiter came in with a plate in his hand and I heard him saying, ‘The old hag on table fourteen says this meat is too tough! She wants another portion!’ One of the cooks said, ‘Gimme her plate!’ I dropped to the floor and peeped round the garbage bin. I saw the cook scrape the meat off the plate and slap another bit on. Then he said, ‘Come on, boys, give her some gravy!’ He carried the plate round to everyone in the kitchen and do you know what they did? Every one of those cooks and kitchen boys spat on to the old lady’s plate! ‘See how she likes it now!’ said the cook, handing the plate back to the waiter.

Quite soon another waiter came in and he shouted, ‘Everyone in the big RSPCC party wants the soup!’ That’s when I started sitting up and taking notice. I was all ears now. I edged a bit further round the garbage bin so that I could see everything that was going on in the kitchen. A man with a tall white hat who must have been the head chef shouted, ‘Put the soup for the big party in the larger silver soup tureen!’

I saw the head chef place a huge silver basin on to the wooden side bench that ran along the whole length of the kitchen against the opposite wall. Into that silver basin is where the soup is going, I told myself. So that’s where the stuff in my little bottle must go as well.

I noticed that high up near the ceiling, above the side bench, there was a long shelf crammed with saucepans and frying pans. If I can somehow clamber up on to that shelf, I thought, then I’ve got it made. I shall be directly above the silver basin.

But first I must somehow get across to the other side of the kitchen and then up on to the middle shelf. A great idea came to me! Once again, I jumped up and hooked my tail around the handle of the garbage bin. Then, hanging upside down, I began to swing.

I was remembering the trapeze artist in the circus I had seen last Easter and the way he had got the trapeze swinging higher and higher and higher and had then let go and gone flying through the air. So just at the right moment, at the top of my swing, I let go with my tail and went

clear across the kitchen and made a perfect landing on the middle shelf!

By golly, I thought, what marvellous things a mouse can do! And I’m only a beginner!

No one had seen me. They were all far too busy with their pots and pans. From the middle shelf I somehow managed to shinny up a little waterpipe in the corner, and in no time at all I was up on the very top shelf just under the ceiling, among all the saucepans and the frying pans. I knew that no one could possibly see me up there. It was a super position, and I began working my way along the shelf until I was directly above the big empty silver basin they were going to pour the soup into. I put down my bottle. I unscrewed the top and crept to the edge of the shelf and quickly poured what was in it straight into the silver basin below. The next moment, one of the cooks came along with a gigantic saucepan of steaming green soup and poured the whole lot into the silver basin. He put the lid on the basin and shouted, ‘Soup for the big party all ready to go out!’ Then a waiter arrived and carried the silver basin away.