Noah's Mice

"Tell us the story again, grandpa, tell us the story!" begged nine little grandmice as Grandpa Squeaks sat under the tree on his rug.

"Okay, okay. Just hold your whiskers and I'll tell you the story again" Grandpa Squeaks chuckled as he primed his long gray whiskers and adjusted his turban.

"A very, very long time ago your grandmother and I were called by the prophet Noah to go onto the ark..."

"Bartholomew Squeaks and Priscilla Squeaks," said Noah, checking off his list.

"Right here!" scratched out Grandpa Squeaks.

Noah smiled. "You'll be on ledge number thirty two. Be careful of the elephants. They're spooked enough for now. And watch out of Shem, Ham, and Japeth; they're coming in and out and may not see you in all this straw."

"Come along now, Mama Squeaks. Let's find our beds."

"But grandpa," interrupted one of the grandmice. "Didn't you miss your family and friends and what about mom and dad?"

"Well, your mother and father weren't around yet; people and mice lived a lot longer back then you know. As for the other mice, most of them weren't wicked like the people and they knew that only two of us could go. We said good-bye and knew that God would take care of everything. Meanwhile, back on the ark..."

"Watch out! There's not much room here you know," said a passing beetle. All of the little critters were trying to stay out of the way of feet and hooves and paws and claws. Grandma and Grandpa Squeaks also tried to stay out of sight from the perched owls and other birds of prey.

The ark was huge for humans but especially colossal for mice. There were three stories of rooms filled with all kinds of animals; two of a kind and even seven of a kind.

"Bartholomew and Priscilla Squeaks?" called out a ferret with a list like Noah's. "You are up on the third floor. Just take this rope. Ham and Japeth are taking this up to the swine." The ferret pointed to a bucket being hoisted up to the top deck.

"Weren't you scared, weren't you scared?" gasped the grandmice.

"Of a ferret and birds of prey and all those feet and hooves and paws and claws?" Grandpa's eyes twinkled for a moment. "I'd like to say yes, but somehow I knew that as long as I was on the ark with Noah, we'd be all right."

"We were on that boat for a whole week before it started raining," continued Grandpa. "Yes, we made it to our berth, which were some very comfortable hammocks by a beam near a window. We could see the people and even a few mice laugh at Noah and his children and their families as they built and loaded the ark. They even pointed to and laughed at us animals. We didn't pay them any mind. Then it started raining..."

"Oh dear, papa, here it comes," said Grandma Squeaks.

"At first it was just a drizzle. Then it really started to pour. The people and the mice weren't laughing any more. In fact, they tried to get onto the ark! But it was too late. Pretty soon it was raining so hard the windows had to be shut."

"It rained for forty days and 'bout drove us animals crazy, crazy, crazy. The humans didn't do so well either."

"And that wasn't all. We were on that boat for one hundred and fifty days! To pass the time we played games like hide and seek, watching out for feet and hooves and paws and claws, Duck-Duck-Goose with real ducks and geese, and jump-rope with Grandpa and Grandma's tails."

"Finally the day came that we got to get off that boat. It was a beautiful day and the critters almost stampeded down the ramp."

"Then we saw an even more amazing sight for sore eyes and whiskers and tails and scales - a rainbow."

"I know what that means!" interrupted a little grandmice. "It means that God loves us and will never flood the earth again."

And the grandmice always remembered that their grandparents were Noah's mice.