THEN there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters, the pears and the oranges. As the fish would not come off the plate, they put it into the red-hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen; but it would not burn either. [Illustration] [Illustration] TOM THUMB went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top--there was no soot. 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. [Illustration] [Illustration] 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. But Hunca Munca had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster, she remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed. 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. [Illustration] [Illustration] THEN Hunca Munca went back and fetched a chair, a book-case, a bird-cage, and several small odds and ends. The book-case and the bird-cage refused to go into the mouse-hole. HUNCA MUNCA left them behind the coal-box, and went to fetch a cradle. [Illustration] [Illustration] HUNCA MUNCA was just returning with another chair, when suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing. The mice rushed back to their hole, and the dolls came into the nursery. WHAT a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda! Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared; and Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled--but neither of them made any remark. [Illustration] [Illustration] 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. SHE also has some useful pots and pans, and several other things. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE little girl that the doll's-house belonged to, said,--"I will get a doll dressed like a policeman!" BUT the nurse said,--"I will set a mouse-trap!" [Illustration] SO that is the story of the two Bad Mice,--but they were not so very very naughty after all, because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke. He found a crooked sixpence under the hearthrug; and upon Christmas Eve, he and Hunca Munca stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane. [Illustration] [Illustration] AND very early every morning--before anybody is awake--Hunca Munca comes with her dust-pan and her broom to sweep the Dollies' house! THE END. PRINTED BY EDMUND EVANS, THE RACQUET COURT PRESS, LONDON, S.E. End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Two Bad Mice, by Beatrix Potter