Three Blind Mice
Lesson 7 Mastery assignment 1
The Wife v. The Mice
Far away in England, there were once three blind mice. One day, the wife of a farmer cut off their tails with a carving knife. The first blind mouse, who's name was Tom, said in an outrage, "This is a felony! I want an arrest made!". The other mice were not so quick to agree. They both were rather frightened by the wife, but Tom kept on talking. "We need a witness" he muttered to himself. "Who would possibly be a witness for us?" asked Kevin the second blind mouse. "I would!" They all turned to the voice though the couldn't see. It was Max, a little boy who lived near the farmer. "I saw what happened." Kevin and Dave, the third blind mouse, were starting to warm up to the idea. Tom said, "Great! now we need a judge." They all thought for a moment when an old barn cat came by. Now even though he was a cat, he never tried to eat these mice because he thought of them as a source of entertainment. "I will be your judge. I have experience with things such as this." Dave put in, "Well that's great and all, but who will be our grand jury?" Tom jumped up. "Why the towns people of course!" This was true. Back in those days, animals and people could communicate with each other perfectly. And so it happened, the farmer's wife was indicted, and given a subpoena, with a bail of twenty pounds of grain or possibly ten chickens and a rooster (there wasn't any good money back then). And because there was no good money back then, the wife, who's name was actually Petunia, was appointed a public defender. The towns people gathered around while the jury got settled and then the prosecution began. Everyone from Cat the Judge to the petit jury listened carefully during the defendant's arraignment. They listened as she told the story, telling them how the mice had come into her kitchen and were trying to steal her cheese. "It was aged cheese that I made a good while back" she informed them "and I did not cut off their tails on purpose. I simply tried to scare them, and they were closer than I thought." When she was done telling her tale good little Max stood up. "I heard her" he said "she yelled at the mice "those tails will be mine for stealing my cheese!" yes friends, that's what I heard." At this point there was nothing much more the defender could do. It was clear that Petunia had committed perjury. "Their verdict will be that you are guilty and you will be convicted!" The defender stressed. "Could I make an appeal?" Petunia questioned. "Not now. Those mice have won. We will do a plea bargain. You will plead guilty and we will hope for the best." But oh, the best was far from what Petunia wanted, but the mice were quite pleased. "She'll be locked up for ten years!" They celebrated and danced and partied with the cat and Max. They also took the aged cheese, they figured she would have no use of it in jail.