The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse

This story, first published in 1918, is a story about two mice Timmy Willie and Johnny Town-Mouse. It may remind you of “The Country Mouse and The City Mouse” if you have heard that tale. In this story, a plump short tailed mouse named Timmy Willie mistakenly is displaced from his garden home to the nearby town by falling asleep in a hamper full of vegetables. After a bumpy ride Timmy arrives at a house and must immediately flee the house cat and house cook. Timmy escapes into a hole in the wall where he crashes into a round table of nine town mice with long tails and dressed in white neck ties .

All the mice are very surprised by this intruder but maintain their gentlemanly manners. The leader of the group, Johnny Town-Mouse, introduces himself to Timmy and makes sure that Timmy has the best accommodations possible. Timmy is given the finest everything by town mouse standards. He eats eight course meals made of bacon and jelly, and sleeps on sofa pillows. However, Timmy does not find these things agreeable. The diet does not suit Timmy and he soon begins to lose weight. The sofa pillow smells like cats and Timmy could not sleep because of all the noise at night.

Timmy longs for his home, and after a few weeks returns safely to his garden where he can eat all the vegetables and run outside. Timmy’s life soon returns to normal, until one day he has an unexpected guest, Johnny Town-Mouse. Johnny had promised to visit Timmy, and because the house maid was told specifically to rid the house of mice, Johnny decided to visit his dear friend.

Timmy is convinced that Johnny will love the country and not want to return to town. But can you guess what happened? The very things Timmy loved about the country Johnny hated. Johnny hated the vegetable diet, the mattress made of grass, and the complete quiet of night. The familiar sounds of cows and lawn mowers terrify Johnny Town-Mouse. And so, while Timmy and Johnny were very good friends, they both agreed that they only had one home, and that they were too accustomed to their habits of living. Johnny Town-Mouse returned to the town that very same week.

So now I want to ask you, are you a town mouse or a country mouse? I personally much prefer the country.