by Gordon Nicol

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(In Scotland we have a lot of words that are a little different from yours and we call
a mouse "mousie" [moosy] and we call a house "housie" I'll also tell you that
Morag has two babies who are called Penelope and Peter)

Morag was a wee mousie
Who lived inside a big housie
She had two little babies to feed
And today, she decided to teach them how to succeed.

She told them, to be ever so careful
To follow her, and hold on to her tail.
Because, they were going to go into the kitchen
Where the big people lived .....ohhh! Penelope was twitching.

"Hold onto my tail and don't ever let go or stop" said Morag
We'll look for food which the big people drop.
Bread and cakes and even cheese
Now, here's the hole that leads us around the deep freeze.

They clambered through and out the other side
"My, It's sooo B I G and B r i g h t ,"they cried.
Penelope and Peter were shaking
As the two babies held their mother's tail they were quaking.
Peter said, "I I I 'm scared."
But Penelope just stood with open eyes and stared.

Because out from the corner came a great, big, black cat
He was hissing and he was mean and his eyes were green.
He leaped across the floor to pounce on mousie
But she held up her foot to stop this big pussy.
The cat screeched to a halt right at wee Morag's face.
Oh my goodness I cannae look at what's aboot to take place.

With all her might, Morag let out the biggest, loudest bark
The cat shrieked. His eyes popped and he skedaddled with an exclamation mark.

Penelope & Peter gave a huge sigh of relief.
For they had expected to feel so much grief.
If the cat had caught Morag whatever would they do?
Without a mummy to look after them, they'd sure be in a stew.

Now, here's a wee secret that I'll tell you with a grin
Morag learned something that saved her mousie skin
That, if you can speak two languages, (like squeak and bark)
You'll go much farther in this world, and ye'll no' be in the dark.

28th March 2002

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