The Dormouse who couldn’t sleep

One chilly late Autumn day, a long time ago, when all the trees had turned beautiful shades of red, orange and gold and all the ground was covered in a brightly coloured carpet of Autumn leaves, a little dormouse was trying to hibernate but, just as he was drifting off to sleep, he heard a loud knocking at his door.

 

“Oh”, said the dormouse, opening his tired eyes and yawning, “I wonder who that can be? Don’t they know that we dormice must get our sleep in the winter?”.

 

And, getting up from his bed, the Dormouse went to answer his door.

 

When he opened his door he saw two little blackbirds standing there, wrapping their wings about them and shivering.

 

“It’s so cold outside”, they said, their beaks chattering, “Can’t we come in and stay with you, Dormouse? Your house looks so warms and cosy”.

 

“Umm..well…alright”, said the dormouse, taking pity upon the poor blackbirds who looked so blue from the cold that they were almost bluebirds, “But you must both promise to be very quiet; none of your noisy whistling and chirping because I really must get my sleep”.

 

And saying this, the dormouse yawned.

 

“We promise we’ll be very quiet”, said the blackbirds.

 

And so the Dormouse let the blackbirds come in and perch upon his coatrack and he went back to bed and shut his eyes.

 

But, just then, as he was drifting off to sleep for a second time, he heard another loud knock at his door.

 

“Oh”, said the Dormouse, opening his tired eyes again and yawning, “Who can that be now? Don’t they know that we dormice must sleep in the wintertime? This really is too much!”.

 

Then, getting up from his bed, the dormouse went to answer his door again.

 

And, this time, when he opened the door, he saw two little field mice holding their tails and shivering.

 

“It’s so cold outside”, said the field mice, “Can we please come and stay with you, Dormouse? Your house looks so warm and cosy”.

 

“Umm…well…alright”, said the Dormouse, taking pity upon the poor field mice who looked very cold indeed, “But you must promise to be very quiet. None of your scratching and squeaking and scampering about getting up to mischief because I really must get my sleep”.

 

And, saying this, the mouse made another big yawn.

 

“Oh, we promise to be very quiet and well behaved”, said the field mice, “You won’t even know we’re here”.

 

And so the dormouse let the two little field mice come in and they snuggled up in a corner of his house while he got back into bed and shut his eyes.

 

But then, just as he was managing to drift off to sleep again, there was another loud knock upon his door.

 

“Oh”, said the dormouse, now starting to feel quite fed up of interruptions, “Who can that be? Don’t they know we dormice must have our sleep in the wintertime, we simply must!”.

 

And, getting up from his bed again, the dormouse went to answer his door.

 

And when he answered his door this time he saw a hive of buzzing bees.

 

“Oh it’s so cold”, buzzed the queen of the bees, wrapping herself in her little ermine cloak and shivering so much that her crown almost slipped from her head, “Can we come in and stay with you, Dormouse? Your house looks so warm and cosy”.

 

The dormouse sighed.

 

“Well..alright..come in then”, he said, opening the door wide enough so that all of the bees could buzz in, “But you must promise to be very quiet. None of your buzzing and whizzing about here and there because I really must get some sleep”.

 

“We promise”, said the Queen of the bees, “We’ll be very quiet”.

 

So then while the bees were making themselves comfortable in a corner of his house, the dormouse got back into bed and shut his eyes, saying to himself, “And I do hope that’s the last time I’ll be disturbed”.

 

But then, just as the dormouse was drifting off to sleep again, he heard the two little blackbirds start to whistle and cheep and flutter about and he heard the two little field mice start to scratch and squeak and scamper round, knocking over things and getting up to all kinds of mischief and the beehive started to buzz very loudly and whizz here and there around the room.

 

And it got so noisy that the dormouse could not even hear his own thoughts.

 

“Oh no!”, said the Dormouse, wrapping his pillow round his head so that it covered his ears, “They’re all being far too noisy. I’ll never get to sleep now”.

 

And, standing up on his bed, the dormouse shouted to all the other creatures, “Please, please you really must be more quiet. I just have to have my sleep and I can’t sleep at all with all the noise you’re making”.

 

But the other creatures wouldn’t listen; the birds kept on whistling and fluttering about; the field mice kept on squeaking and scratching and scampering and the bees became a big buzzing yellow cloud, whizzing about here, there and everywhere.

 

“Oh no! No!”, cried the dormouse, shaking his head in despair, “This is terrible, terrible”.

 

But then, just at that moment, the Dormouse woke up.

 

He opened his eyes and, looking round about him, he saw that all in his house was quiet and still.

 

He looked over at where the little blackbirds had been whistling and fluttering about but they seemed to have flown away; he looked over at where the two little field mice had been scampering about and playing games but they were nowhere to be seen or heard either and, wherever and under whatever he looked he could not find a single buzzing bee.

 

“How strange”, he thought to himself, “Did I dream it all?”.

 

But then, suddenly, he heard the sound of twittering birds and scampering field mice and buzzing bees from outside his door and, opening wide his door, he saw to his amazement  that all the autumn leaves had gone and instead  the trees were all green; the sun shone brightly in a clear blue sky and all the fields were full of pretty flowers.

 

“It’s Spring”, he cried; a big smile spreading across his face as a large butterfly fluttered past his whiskered nose.

 

And then all the little birds twittered to him and all the little mice called to him and all the bees buzzed to him, saying, “Come out, Dormouse. It’s such a lovely, warm and beautiful spring day”.