If You Think You’re Houseproud

Then Take A Look At This Little Mouse Tidying A Man’s Shed Every Night

[embed]Mouse Filmed Tidying Up Man’s Shed Every Night

When I was a child, on the weekends I used to make all the beds at home. Then I would go downstairs and get the duster and dust all the furniture in the bedrooms — next, I would sneek downstairs and lay the table for lunch making sure I was as quiet as a mouse and not ‘clatter’ the cutlery.

After finishing, I would run into the sitting room and pick up a book and pretend I had been reading the whole time.

I used to hear my mother coming into the dining room from the kitchen and she would usually say: “Oh, the table’s laid, I don’t remember doing that.” I must have driven her absolutely mad, thinking that she’d become forgetful.

The Real-Life Inspiration

Beatrix Potter wrote a similar tale based the story on a true local legend. A real-life tailor named John Samuel Prichard was commissioned to make a suit for the Mayor of Gloucester. When he returned to his shop on a Monday morning, he found the suit magically completed — except for one buttonhole, with a note stating, “No more twist”. It turned out his assistants had finished the work over the weekend, but the legend of mysterious little helpers was born, inspiring Potter’s classic tale.

The Tailor of Gloucester is a beloved children’s book written by Beatrix Potter, famously her personal favourite. It tells the story of an impoverished, hardworking tailor tasked with sewing a beautiful, cherry-coloured silk coat and satin waistcoat for the Mayor of Gloucester’s Christmas morning wedding.

The story unfolds in several key steps:

• The Commission & The Cat: The tailor meticulously cuts out the fabric but realises he is out of a specific twist of cherry-coloured silk thread needed to finish the buttonholes. He sends his cat, Simpkin, to the market with their very last penny to buy more.
• The Act of Kindness: While Simpkin is out, the tailor finds mice that Simpkin had trapped under teacups. Taking pity on the creatures, he frees them
• The Petty Revenge: Upon returning, Simpkin discovers his mice are gone. Angry and vengeful, he hides the silk twist he bought
• The Illness: The tailor catches a fever from the bitter winter cold and takes to his bed, delirious, leaving the precious garments unfinished right before Christmas.
• The Mice’s Reward: In a magical turn of events on Christmas Eve, the mice he freed return to the workshop. Out of gratitude, they spend the night sewing and completing the suit, singing and snipping until the fabric is transformed. They leave a tiny scrap of paper reading “No more twist” because they ran out of the necessary thread to finish the very last buttonhole.
• The Resolution: Realising the mice’s kindness, an ashamed Simpkin retrieves the hidden twist. The tailor wakes up on Christmas morning to find the coat perfectly finished. The suit is a massive success, bringing the tailor great wealth and fame.

Kindness is sometimes misunderstood, but genuine kindness from the heart is one of mankind’s greatest attributes.

Thank you for reading to … The End

Acknowledgement to The Guardian Newspaper, Wikipedia, Beatrice Potter