Once upon a time there was a little mouse. She lived in the walls of a little boy's playroom. The playroom was filled with the most wondrous toys, of all colors, kinds, shapes, and sizes. Every day, the little mouse, starved and bored, looked in on that playroom and wondered what would happen if she ever went in there among all those lovely toys.
Without really planning to, one day the little mouse slipped into the playroom and found herself surrounded by the nicest toys that she had ever seen.
"Hello," she said.
Being Toys, they ignored her.
Quietly, the little mouse scampered around the playroom, introducing herself to all the Toys at least once. They all ignored here, except for the Captain of the Toy Soldiers.
"Don't chew on the furniture," he said gruffly, and the little mouse backed away from the overstuffed chair she had been looking at.
Then the Parents arrived, to pick up the Playroom and the little mouse ran back to the walls.
Day after day, the little mouse wandered the Playroom, meeting all sorts of new Toys. She discovered that if she stood very still, the Toys would forget that she was there, and act perfectly normal. Some of the Toys were more friendly than others, and treated her as if she weren't a mouse at all, scurrying back to the walls every sunrise. But all the Toys had a habit of falling into a nasty silence if they realized that they were discussing deep and secret TOY things, that no mouse should ever know.
But usually, they treated as if she were some inferior sort of Toy, perhaps even a mere toy.
And then, one day, the little mouse worked up enough courage not to go home one morning, and spent all day in the Playroom. As the sun set, the Parents came in to put the little boy to bed. The little mouse was lying in the middle of the floor, making paw marks in the crayon box with a choir doll. There was no place to run, so the little mouse lay very still, wondering if she could fool the Parents as well as she had fooled the Toys.
"Oh, look, he's gone and left the playroom an utter mess again," sighed the Mother, and put the little mouse away with all the other stuffed animals.
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