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The King, The Mice, and the Cheese

A favorite children’s book of mine is The King, the Mice, and the Cheese by Nancy and Eric Gurney. I remember loving how the king had the most wonderful cheese in the kingdom only to discover mice were devouring all of it. To rid the kingdom of the mice, the wise men brought in cats which upset the king even more. Progressively, the wise men scared away the cats with dogs, the dogs with lions, the lions with elephants, and finally brought back the mice to eliminate the elephants. In the end, the king said, “I will learn how to get along with you (if you) get along with me.”   The mice learned to eat with manners.

 
It sure would have been nice if the mice that took over my house had learned to eat with manners! I had dogs that did little more than nod at the mice. I even got cats that seemed to enjoy sharing their food. Short of ordering lions and elephants, I went to the department store and purchased mouse cubes allowing me to catch the mice without killing them. 
 
Then there was the problem of releasing the mice. Just where should I release them? No one else in the neighborhood would welcome the mice as all of my neighbors had plenty of their own.   The dogs and I walked them far away to a wooded area where perhaps they could start a new life as a country mouse rather than a town mouse. 
 
When life becomes parallel to a story you already know, it is fun to share with others. Do you have a favorite story from your childhood that has a theme that speaks to you? For me, The King, the Mice, and the Cheese reminds me with humor that we might as well learn to get along for the situation could always become worse!
 
Gurney, Nancy and Eric. The King, the Mice, and the Cheese. New York: Collins, 1965.