Once upon a time in a not-so-far-away land there were three blind mice.

These mice lived on a small

farm (as many mice do) just outside the city. The mice, named Arnold, Frank, and Edgar, were very
cunning indeed. They found creative ways to steal food from the farmer and his wife, terrorize the other
animals living on the farm, and even find homes for themselves all over the farm.

The fight between the farmer's family and the mice was a continual battle. Every day, the mice would
come to the house to pillage and scavenge what they could. They would take whatever food they could
find and scatter back to their home in the barn. Upon returning to their safe haven, a small crack in the
wall stuffed with warm, sweet hay, the mice would plot their hunt for the next day.

Every day, they scampered from the barn at lightning speed to find different food from their regular
bread crumbs and spilled milk on the kitchen floor. However, one day the mice decided it was time to
change things up from their normal routine.

"I think it's time we get some of that famous pumpkin pie the farmer's wife always makes," said Frank.

"Yeah! I heard that she wins the blue ribbon at the county fair with her recipe every year!" exclaimed
Arnold.
Edgar, the quietest and most cunning of the mouse brothers, began to unfold his plan. He started this
intricate plan beginning at the barn. At dawn, the mice would run to the house and enter from their
traditional route through a crack in the bottom of the back door. Once inside, they would put on their
disguises to trick the farmer's wife into giving them a whole pie to themselves.

The mice decided to play upon the weaknesses of the farmer's wife. They observed her daily habits and
saw that she had a kind heart and a loving nature towards all people. In order to gain her sympathy,
Edgar formulated the plan around the mouse brothers posing as blind men.

"We will wear dark glasses and carry canes to win the sympathy of the farmer's wife. Surely then she will
give us some of her famous pumpkin pie!" exclaimed Edgar.

Finally the day came for Operation: Pumpkin Pie as Edgar affectionally called the plan. The mouse
brothers found small bits of glass and wire to assemble their glasses and they found small twigs to
function as their canes. They waited at the door of the barn in the morning sunlight and awaited Edgar's
countdown. At the rooster's crow, the mice bolted towards the house to claim their pie.

They followed the plan in great detail, scooting under the door and running to the kitchen. The mice
climbed up the kitchen table, leaping over the gap to the counter and pulled out their canes and glasses.
They positioned themselves strategically in the line of vision of the farmer's wife, Eleanor. Eleanor
screamed at a higher pitch than the mice had ever heard. She reeled back, knocking over nearly
everything on the kitchen counter. Eleanor grabbed the butcher knife and held it in front of her, aimed
directly at the mice.

The plight did not end then. The wife, in an attempt to save herself, struck the knife to the table and cut
off Frank's tail. Then, she saw a peculiar sight that she would not soon forget. The mice were wearing
dark glasses and carrying canes. She froze in her place, realizing that she could not hurt the mice.

"They must be blind," thought the woman, feeling more and more sympathetic towards the poor
creatures. She wondered how on earth she could repay the poor creatures and looked around the
kitchen for some sort of repayment. In the corner of her eye, she saw a freshly baked pumpkin pie in the
windowsill cooling.
She grabbed the pie and offered it to the mice, feeling more and more sorry for what she had done to
the poor mouse's tail. The brothers quickly grabbed their prize and ran back to the barn to devour their
feast in gleeful joy.

"I knew it would work," said Edgar exchanging a happy laugh with his brothers. "I can't wait for our next
adventure!"

The End

I hope you enjoyed the stories that helped mold my childhood as much as I loved listening to my
grandmother, Kay, tell them. These stories are meant to be told, so please share this book with your
friends, acquaintances, strangers on the street, or whoever you think could use a good read. Thank you
for reading and I hope you will continue this tradition of reimagined nursery rhymes with your own
families!

Author's Note

Retelling this story of the three blind mice was so much fun for me. I wanted to change up the story
from what listeners or readers typically think it is and give it that "Grandmother Kay flair." In the original
story, the three mice were blind and had their tails chopped off by the farmer's wife. But I imagined the
story quite differently. I imagined the mice not being blind at all and the story ending quite differently.

This nursery rhyme is of English descent and many individuals have tried to decipher its meaning.
Unfortunately, all attempts to decode the meaning behind this rhyme were futile and it is presumed to
be a simple nonsense song for its listener's enjoyment.

As done before in this storybook, I thought that changing up the perspective of the story could be very
fun. Most people that read this story and believe that the mice are blind because that is from the human
perspective. However, in the story above, we can see that the mice weren't actually blind, and very
clever instead. By changing the plot of the original rhyme while still keeping with the story, I tried to
create a fun backstory that only the narrator of this storybook could think of.
Bibliography

Book Title: The Nursery Rhyme Book

Story Title: Three Blind Mice

Author: Andrew Lang

Year: 1897