Forgetting his promise to Cinderella, Gus poked his head out of the basket. And then he spotted it: the biggest cake he had ever seen! Across the street, the town baker was proudly putting the finishing touches on a twelve-layer vanilla cake. It was covered with beautiful flowers made out of icing. The King had specifically requested that he make it for the royal family. The baker was very pleased with the way it had turned out. He had worked very hard on it.
Gus couldn’t resist. He had to have at least a tiny nibble of the tasty-looking dessert. He leaped out of the basket and landed on the cobblestoned street. Cinderella was so busy admiring a pretty blue dress that she didn’t even notice Gus had left.
The mouse raced across the street and climbed up a rack filled with plates and cups. Gus didn’t realize how shaky the rack was as he climbed up it. All he could think about was tasting that cake!
Back across the street, Cinderella sighed happily. “A dress made of pale blue satin would be so elegant,” she said to herself. “Maybe someday I’ll get to wear a gown like this. After all, one can always dream. Right, Gus?”
But there was no answer.
“Gus?” Cinderella asked again. With a little frown, she peeked into the basket—and realized that Gus was gone!
“Oh, dear!” Cinderella cried. Her voice was filled with worry. “Where did he go?” She bent down to look for Gus under the long tables.
Then Cinderella heard someone scream. “Look out!” they cried. Cinderella stood up and quickly spun around.
The rack of dishes was wobbling back and forth, and everything was about to fall! At the very top stood Gus. He was absolutely terrified.
Cinderella raced across the street. “Jump down, Gus,” she whispered, looking around nervously. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch you!”
Gus squeezed his eyes shut and jumped off the top of the rack.
Thump! He landed safely on the soft pillow Cinderella had put in the basket.
“Are you okay?” Cinderella asked him.
Gus nodded. But before he could say anything, a man suddenly yelled, “The rack is going to fall! Everyone get out of the way! Hurry!”
Cinderella jumped back just in time. The rack crashed to the ground, sending dishes everywhere. The ones that didn’t break on the street landed right on the beautiful layer cake, smashing it instantly. It was clear that the lovely cake was ruined.
Gus peeked out the side of the basket at the broken dishes and the flattened cake. He knew that he’d now caused a much, much bigger problem than taking Lady Tremaine’s roses.
Oh, no, Gus thought. What did I do now? It seems all I’ve been doing today is making more and more trouble!
The baker couldn’t believe what had just happened. “My cake!” he howled. “My masterpiece creation! Twelve layers of sweet, fluffy cake, made with the finest vanilla and sugar in the land! All my hours of preparation. And now it’s ruined!”
Gus peeked his face out of the basket sadly. He felt horrible about what had just happened.
Cinderella took a step toward the baker and put her hand on his shoulder. “It was a beautiful cake,” she said kindly. “Everyone who saw it knows how hard you worked on it.”
“What good is that?” the baker cried. “Now there will be no dessert for the fair! The royal family specifically requested that I bake them the Prince’s favorite cake! What am I going to do now?”
“We’ll work something out. I promise,” Cinderella told him.
“But how?” he asked. “There is not enough time to bake another twelve-layer cake now! The special dessert is always served after the parade. That’s in only six hours. I’m doomed!”
Cinderella smiled. “I’ll find a way to do it,” she said. “Come to Lady Tremaine’s château tonight at five o’clock. We’ll have a dessert ready for the fair. I promise!”
“A cake,” the baker corrected Cinderella. “It must be a cake!”
Cinderella nodded. “I will make sure of it,” she told him.
“Thank you,” the baker said, his voice full of relief. “I will pick up the cake at precisely five o’clock this evening.” He gave Cinderella a grateful smile.
But as Cinderella turned away to begin the walk home with Gus safely tucked into the basket, her smile quickly faded. How would she ever bake a cake to serve the entire village and the royal family—and get all of her chores done, too?
Cinderella grew more and more worried as she headed to the château. “Oh, Gus, what am I going to do?” she asked. “I’ve never made a giant cake before! Only regular-size cakes. I just don’t know how this is going to be possible.” Cinderella looked down and let out a sigh.
Gus pushed back the lid of the basket and climbed out. He was so embarrassed about what had happened.
Then, his eyes suddenly lit up. He tugged at Cinderella’s sleeve eagerly. “Cinderelly! Cinderelly! That’s it! You figured it out!” he shouted happily.
“What do you mean, Gus?” Cinderella asked.
“Little cakes!” Gus exclaimed. “Making a great, big, giant cake would take too long. But we can make lotsa little cakes—one for everybody!”
“Hmm,” Cinderella replied thoughtfully.
“It’s a good idea, Gus. But still, making hundreds of cakes will take a lot of time and effort—and I’m just one person.”
“One person with a lot of friends,” Gus corrected her. “Everybody will help! Jaq and the other mice. . . and the birds . . . and I bet Bruno the dog would help, too!”
Cinderella smiled. “You know, Gus, you might be right. Maybe we can pull this off, after all!”
In a few minutes, Cinderella and Gus arrived back at the château. Luckily, Lady Tremaine had been very busy supervising Anastasia and Drizella’s music lesson and hadn’t realized that Cinderella had been gone so long.
Meanwhile, Gus raced through the château to round up all the mice. “Cinderelly needs us,” he told them. “Come down to the kitchen right away! Shh! We have to be really, really quiet!”
A few moments later, Gus found Bruno asleep in the kitchen. Gus woke him up. “Bruno, we need your help,” the mouse pleaded. “Will you join us, please?”
Bruno slowly got up off the floor and yawned. He wagged his tail and gave Gus a small nod.
Then Gus noticed some bluebirds sitting on the windowsill. “Come on!” he exclaimed. “Let’s all help Cinderelly!” The birds tweeted happily and followed Gus.
When Cinderella got to the kitchen, she could hardly believe her eyes. A group of mice and birds was gathered and ready to help out. Even Bruno was there, waiting to pitch in.
“Oh, thank you, everyone!” she exclaimed. “Thank you so much! I just know we can get this done with everyone helping. This is going to turn out great!”
“Um, Cinderella?” asked Jaq. “What is going to turn out great? What do you want us to do?”
“We are going to bake cakes!” Cinderella told them. “Hundreds of tiny cakes for the village fair.” She quickly explained what had happened earlier that day.
“So now everybody’s going to eat our cakes,” Gus finished. “Even the Prince and his family!”
“What do you think, everyone?”Cinderella asked hopefully. “Would you be willing to spend the day baking with me? I think it could be a lot of fun.”
“Of course we’ll help our Cinderelly,” Perla said immediately.
Suzy jumped up and clapped her hands. “We can do it! I know we can!” she cried.
“Can we eat some of the cake, too, Cinderella?” Jaq asked shyly.
Cinderella laughed. “Let’s focus on the baking first,” she said, smiling. “Okay, everybody! Let’s start making cakes!”
“Now, let’s see,” Cinderella said as she read her favorite cake recipe. “We need flour, sugar, vanilla, and butter—good, we’ve got all that! And eggs and milk . . .” She paused. “Well, I can go out to the barn and milk the cow so that we’ll have fresh milk for the cakes. But I need someone to go out to the henhouse and collect the eggs. Are the
re any volunteers?”
“Let’s all go,” Gus suggested. “We need lotsa paws to carry lotsa eggs!”
“Good idea,” Cinderella agreed. Then she picked up a large wooden milking pail and headed out to the barn. “I’ll be back soon!” she called over her shoulder. “Thanks, everybody!”
Gus and Jaq hopped off the table to rush out to the henhouse. But before they even reached the door, Mert grabbed hold of their tails.
“Hold it right there,” he squeaked. “How are we going to carry all of the eggs when they’re almost as big as we are?”
“Mert’s right,” Perla said. “We need a plan!”
“All we need to do is think of the fastest and easiest way to get the eggs from the henhouse to the kitchen,” Bert said practically. “That shouldn’t be too hard!”
There was silence in the kitchen as each mouse tried to come up with a plan.
“Maybe we could run back and forth carrying an egg each trip,” Perla finally suggested.
Luke shook his head. “Too dangerous. What if Lucifer saw us and pounced?”
“We could roll the eggs across the courtyard,” Jaq said.
“I don’t think that will work,” Luke said. “What if as we rolled them they cracked?”
The mice looked at each other nervously. And Bruno didn’t have any ideas. He’d fallen asleep under the kitchen table!
It suddenly seemed like getting the eggs from the henhouse to the kitchen was going to be very hard for the little mice.
Gus stared out the window at the henhouse. There just had to be a way to do it. Then he noticed the clothesline that was strung between the henhouse and the kitchen. Suddenly Gus had a great idea!
“The clothesline!” Gus cried. “We can put the eggs in the pockets of the clothes, then pull on the clothesline so that the eggs travel across the courtyard—right to the kitchen!”
“What a good idea!” Suzy exclaimed. She ran over to Gus and gave him a big hug—making him blush bright red!
The mice put Gus’s plan into action right away. They ran through the henhouse, gathering the large eggs. Soon they had collected all the eggs they needed. Jaq grabbed a ladder, and the mice worked on carefully tucking the eggs into the pockets of the clothes hanging on the line.
“Okay, everybody,” Gus said. “The eggs are ready to go to the kitchen. We have to be very, very careful that they don’t fall—or we won’t have enough eggs for the cake!”
The other mice nodded. They did not want to let Cinderella down!
“Jaq, Luke, and I will go to the kitchen and pull the clothesline,” Gus continued. “Mert will toss the eggs to Perla, who will put them in a basket. Suzy and Bert will push the other end of the clothesline. Everybody ready? Let’s go!”
The mice couldn’t wait to put the rest of their plan into action. They rushed off to their places, and slowly the clothesline started moving. One by one, Perla caught each egg and carefully placed them in a big straw basket. “It’s working! It’s working!” she cried happily.
And it would have worked perfectly, if Lucifer hadn’t suddenly shown up to cause trouble!
A loud scream from Mert startled all the mice. “Gus! Jaq! Perla! Luke! Look out! Lucifer is here!” he cried.
Lucifer had silently crept up into the kitchen. He smiled and licked his lips. The cat looked like he was ready to pounce!
Luckily for the mice, Bruno came to the rescue. He snarled and growled at Lucifer, who leaped out of the way.
But all of the commotion interrupted everyone’s concentration. The clothesline suddenly swayed back and forth—and an egg fell out of a shirt pocket!
Gus didn’t waste a second. He closed his eyes, leaped off the ledge, and held out his arms. He caught the egg just before it crashed onto the floor!
“Phew! That was a close call!” Gus exclaimed, wiping his forehead.
With Bruno standing guard—and keeping Lucifer away—the mice quickly moved the rest of the eggs into the kitchen. Cinderella returned shortly, carrying a pail full of milk.
“Good work, everybody!” she told them when she saw the basket full of eggs. “I knew you could do it!” She gave them a proud smile.
Now that they had all the ingredients, Cinderella and the mice went right to work making the cakes. Soon they had bowls full of thick, golden cake batter. Then the mice helped Cinderella pour the batter into small, shiny tins. She carefully placed each tin in the hot oven.
“Keep your fingers crossed that the cakes bake quickly,” Cinderella told the mice as she glanced at the clock. “We don’t have much time!”
Gus looked at the clock, too. It was almost three o’clock. There were dozens of little cakes in the oven. But how would they decorate them all before the baker arrived to pick them up? He was going to be there in two hours! There was only one way to get it done: they were going to need even more help.
Then Gus spotted a bluebird sitting on the windowsill, chirping happily. He ran up to it. “Cinderelly needs more help! Go get some more friends!” he told the bird.
The bluebird chirped again and quickly flew away to deliver the message to the other birds in the garden.
While the cakes were baking, the mice helped Cinderella make frosting in all different colors. Gus and Jaq sat on the eggbeaters and pedaled them as if they were riding bicycles, while Suzy and Perla added the sugar and vanilla. Then they spooned the frosting into pastry bags to get ready to decorate the cakes.
Ding! All of a sudden the timer rang. Cinderella carefully took the cakes out of the oven. They smelled delicious!
“Now we just need to wait for them to cool,” Cinderella said as she anxiously looked at the clock again. “Then we can decorate them. If we frost the cakes while they’re still hot, the icing will melt, and it all will turn into a big mess!”
Suddenly, the sound of chirping filled the room. The little bluebird was back—with more of her friends.
“The birdies will help decorate the cakes, Cinderelly,” Gus explained proudly. He looked at Cinderella and smiled.
Cinderella beamed. “What a good idea, Gus! And if the birds fly around the cakes, their wings will fan them—and cool them off.”
And that’s exactly what happened! The bluebirds happily flew around the cakes, and soon the treats were cool enough to decorate.
“Phew! Not a moment too soon,” Cinderella said. “The baker will be here in less than an hour!”
“Don’t worry, Cinderella,” Jaq said. “Watch this!”
Jaq climbed onto a pitcher on the table. Then he jumped off and landed on a pastry bag filled with frosting.
Splat! The icing squirted onto a cake.
Cinderella clapped her hands. “Perfect!” she exclaimed. Not only were they getting the job done, but they were all having fun doing it, too!
Soon all the cakes were decorated. But before Cinderella and the mice had a chance to taste one, suddenly there was a loud knock at the front door.
“Oh, dear!” Cinderella cried. “I told the baker to pick up the cakes at the back door. And he’s early, too! I’d better get him to the kitchen before Stepmother comes downstairs! Everybody—hide!”
The birds flew out the window, while most of the mice ran toward the high rafters near the ceiling. From there, they would be able to see and hear everything that happened in the kitchen. Only Gus and a few of his friends stayed on the counter. They all hoped the baker would like their cakes!
Cinderella hurried to the front door. But when she opened it, she got a big surprise. The baker wasn’t standing on the doorstep. It was Madame Gilmore with the new rosebush. In all the excitement about baking the cakes, Cinderella had completely forgotten that Madame Gilmore had promised to deliver the rosebush that afternoon. But luckily the florist hadn’t forgotten!
“Hello, Madame Gilmore!” Cinderella exclaimed. “Lovely to see you again. And thank you very much for coming over so quickly!”
“I’m sorry I’m late, my dear,” the florist replied. “There was quite a com
motion in town this morning. Tonight’s dessert for the fair was destroyed, but the baker has promised that there will be a delicious dessert just as good as the one he made earlier. Everyone can’t wait to see what it will be!”
Cinderella smiled to herself. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to see what happens at the fair tonight,” she said. “Thank you again for bringing the rosebush. Let’s go out to the garden so we can plant it.”
“No, no, my dear, I know you’re very busy,” Madame Gilmore said. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll take care of everything.”
“Of course! It’s just around the corner,” Cinderella replied gratefully. She pointed at the cobblestoned path that led to the garden.
As Cinderella walked back into the house, she heard another knock—this time coming from the back door. She hurried to answer it.
“Now surely that’s the baker,” she said as she ran back to the kitchen. “I hope Stepmother didn’t hear the second knock. I don’t want her to come downstairs until all of the cakes are gone—and the new rosebush is planted!”
Sure enough, the baker was standing at the kitchen door. He looked very nervous.
“Hello,” he said. “Is the dessert ready?”
“Yes, it is,” Cinderella replied with a smile. “Come in. I hope you’re pleased with what we’ve done. I think that it really turned out wonderful!
The baker stepped into the large kitchen. His eyes grew wide as he took in the sight: dozens of beautifully decorated cakes that almost looked too good to eat!
“How—how did you do it?” he said with a gasp. “It’s not possible . . .”
“Oh, I had a little help from some very good friends,” Cinderella said. She glanced over at Gus and winked.
“May I try one?” the baker asked, pointing to one of the cakes. “They look delicious.” He licked his lips in anticipation.
The Great Mouse Mistake Page 2
