|
"All aboard," shouted Craig, the
mouse. He was dressed in a conductor’s uniform and sat inside the engine
of the tiny train. "Come on, you rascals. Climb on board. There’s plenty
of room for everyone," he called.
The wee mice stood giggling with
excitement. "Can I go for a train ride?" Michael asked his mum. She pushed
him on without a word.
"Mum, can I go for a ride too?"
asked Kirsty.
"Me too, Mummie," squeaked Hanna.
"All right, lassies. Climb on. You’d
better hurry or Craig will leave without you," she urged.
All the little mice came running
over and climbed on the train. They couldn’t sit still. They were all too
excited. The people in the house only set up the train for a week before
Christmas. It ran all the way around the bottom of the tree in a big
circle. Craig started the train’s engine. It began to chug and move slowly
down the track.
"Here we go, Hannah," Kirsty shouted
to her wee sister. "Hold on tight."
The train moved down the track.
Chugga chugga chugga chugga. TOOT! TOOT! It whistled loudly, but not loud
enough to wake the people up. As the train moved, the mice looked around.
"Look at the packages," Hannah
squealed. "They are pretty." They saw silver boxes tied with red velvet
ribbons, gold boxes tied with silver ribbons and even packages with Santa
faces on them.
"Look at the tree," Kirsty pointed.
"There are glass balls. If you look quickly, Hannah, you’ll see your face
reflected in them. It’ll look funny!" Hannah looked up. "Here comes a
green ball. Look quickly." Hannah started to giggle when she saw her face.
It was big and round and her whiskers looked monstrous in size. Each time
the train passed by a glass ball, Hannah saw herself and laughed.
"What are those?" she asked,
pointing at the candy canes.
Kirsty explained, "Those are
peppermint sticks. They’re very sticky."
"I like the lights," Hannah smiled.
"I like the blue lights the most."
There were blue lights, red lights,
green lights, orange lights, yellow lights and white lights. Some of them
flashed on the mice as the train whizzed by. Around and around it went, at
least a dozen times. All the wee mice had a chance to see everything. At
last, much to the disappointment of the wee ones, the train came to a
stop. "End of the ride!" Craig shouted. The mice climbed off the train and
headed back to their mouse holes.
"I want to do that again," Hannah
whimpered. "More!"
"We’ll do it again tomorrow night,"
her mum promised.
Hannah turned once more and looked
at the big Christmas tree. She’d never forget how much fun that was,
seeing her face in the glass balls, feeling the warmth of the colored
lights, seeing the beautifully wrapped packages, and learning about
peppermint sticks. "Good night Christmas Train," she whispered and slipped
her tiny hand into her mum’s. |
