The Tale of Two Bad Mice (Beatrix Potter Originals)

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Tom Thumb began to carve the ham but the knife was only a toy and it broke, hurting him. He put the hurt finger in his mouth.

While Tom Thumb was up the chimney, Hunca Munca had another disappointment. She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser, labelled-- Rice--Coffee--Sago--but when she turned them upside down, there was nothing inside except red and blue beads.The ham broke off the plate with a jerk and rolled under the table. ‘Leave it,’ said Tom Thumb. ‘Let’s have some fish instead.’ The tale's themes of rebellion, insurrection, and individualism reflect not only Potter's desire to free herself of her domineering parents and build a home of her own, but her fears about independence and her frustrations with Victorian domesticity. Two dolls named Lucinda and Jane live in a doll's house. The house belongs to Lucinda. Jane is the cook. There is, however, no need for Jane to do any cooking because she and Lucinda do not eat and all of the food in the doll's house is made of plaster.

With Tom Thumb’s assistance she carried the bolster downstairs, and across the hearth-rug. It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse-hole; but they managed it somehow. First up, it is likely that Hunca Munca's name is not relevant to her role in the story. According to her biographer, Judy Taylor, Potter rescued two mice from a trap and decided to name them and keep them as pets. The development of the tale came some months later, when Potter observed that the female mouse kept a tidy nest and, when given the opportunity to explore, chose to "steal" a small doll rather than doll's house food. Given that the genesis of the story came from the mouse's behaviour, well after she was named, it is possible there is no strong link. Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could--especially Tom Thumb! He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom, and he threw them out of the top floor window. The book-case and the bird-cage were rescued from under the coal-box—but Hunca Munca has got the cradle, and some of Lucinda’s clothes.The Tale of Two Bad Mice is included as a segment in the 1971 Royal Ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter. Just before New Year's 1904, Warne sent Potter a glass-fronted mouse house with a ladder to an upstairs nesting loft built to her specifications so she could easily observe and draw the mice. [7] The doll's house Potter used as a model was one Warne had built in his basement workshop as a Christmas gift for his four-year-old niece Winifred Warne. Potter had seen the house under construction and wanted to sketch it, but the house had been moved just before Christmas to Fruing Warne's home south of London in Surbiton. Norman Warne invited Potter to have lunch in Surbiton and sketch the doll's house, but Mrs. Potter intervened. She had taken alarm at the growing intimacy between her daughter and Warne; as a consequence, she made the family carriage unavailable to her daughter, and refused to chaperone her to the home of those she considered her social inferiors. Potter declined the invitation and berated herself for not standing up to her mother. She became concerned that the whole project could be compromised. [7]