“Hi, Peeps. Allen and Kiki here. Our Mom has another story for us, so after we convinced her that we were starving for treats, and took a few minutes scarfing them down, we have ensconced ourselves on the arms of her chair and are waiting for her to read to us.”
“Hi, Folks, and Kitties. Let’s hear this tale about some things that happened after dark in a big brown house one early summer’s night.”
The big old house is quiet and dark
the children snuggled in their beds
hugging their cuddly little bears
From behind their bedroom doors
the adults send out soft snores
as they sleep away the stresses of the day
The big orange cat curls up asleep at the foot of the bed
occasionally twitching his tail as he dreams
of birds and mousies and fishies
Kiki pipes up, “I’m glad they have a cat in that house. I already like these people.”
“Right,” adds Allen. “Mom do I twitch my tail when I am asleep?”
“Sometimes I have watched you do that. When it happens, I wonder what you are dreaming about.”
In another part of the house
a gentle breeze wafts through open windows
bringing in the scent of night-blooming flowers
Fireflies enter by a small tear in the screen
and emit a pale-yellow twinkling glow
to add to the evening’s romance
“You know, we cats can see very well in just a little bit of light, Allen says. “I think I would like to explore a house that had fireflies flitting around.”
“Oh, yeah,” adds Kiki “We could have a terrific time chasing those flying things. Maybe we could even catch a few and eat them.”
“But then, Kiki, you wouldn’t have their nice built-in lanterns to light your way.”
“But it might be worth it,” muses Allen.
“Let’s see what happens in this house.”
Crickets and a couple of click beetles
crawl out of their hiding places
offering a gift of music
“What are click beetles and crickets?” Kiki’s whiskers are twitching at the thought.
“Click beetles are smallish insects that, when turned on their backs or frightened, can snap their heads back and jump into the air, making a clicking sound. They land right side up on their feet.”
“Hmm…I might be scared of them if they jumped on me.”
“But what about crickets? Are they like grasshoppers that I saw when I was outside?” Allen is looking very interested. They made a funny sound sometimes, and I tried to catch one, but it got away.”
“Crickets are usually black or brown and have longer antennae than those green grasshoppers. But they do make a similar sound; in the case of the crickets, they make that chirpy noise by rubbing their back legs together. A cricket in the house makes a sound that can become quite annoying to the humans if it stays around very long.”
“I think that sleeping cat was missing out on some very interesting critters.” Both Allen and Kiki seem a bit eager to take that cat’s place. My cats really want to play with those critters.
Wind chimes add a gentle tinkling sound
that blends with ticks and bongs
from the grandfather clock in the hall
More comments from the furries on my chair, “Those wind chimes you have out in the patio aren’t so bad, but I don’t know as I like the idea of that clock. I don’t like it if things are too noisy.” Allen puts his furry little paws up to cover his ears.
“Well, Allen, when I was growing up, we had a clock that ticked and struck the hour. My dad had to wind it every week so it would keep running. We got so used to its sounds that nobody ever even noticed it. Sometimes we would have company spending the night, and they would ask, ‘How can you sleep with that clock making all that noise?’ I’ll bet if you lived in a house with such a clock, the noise wouldn’t bother you after a couple of days.”
“Maybe, if you say so.” He looks doubtful.
“And why do they call it a grandfather clock. Is it a grandfather? Is the clock a human?”
“Almost a hundred and fifty years ago, a man named Henry Clay Work wrote a song about what then was called a long case clock. He called the song My Grandfather’s Clock, and the name caught on. The song was about a clock that was bought on the day this person’s grandfather was born and which stopped working on the day he died. I learned it when I was in school. I’ll put a link to it at the end of this diary.”
“And is there a grandmother clock, too?” Allen couldn’t let go of this.”
“Actually, there is. But don’t you want to know what happens in this house after dark?”
“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot.”
As moonlight slides its way
through windows and across the floor
mice emerge from their holes
Decked out in elegant finery
they curtsy to one another
and dance
“Ooh, mice!” Kiki’s green eyes sparkle with the thought.
‘It’s hard to believe that the cat in the bedroom slept through all this.” Allen is perking up, too. “That would just be amazing fun if we got to chase mousies around the house and play with them.”
“I suspect that those mousies were having lots of fun dancing at their party. I think they would not have been so happy to see a cat joining the festivities.”
Refreshments are provided
by a small bit of crackers and cheese
that had been left on the kitchen counter
The party goes on until dawn
By then
the silvery moon has already gone to bed
“Cheese and crackers doesn’t sound like such a great party food. I think I’d rather have toona, or maybe chicken.”
“Well, Kiki, they weren’t cats.” Allen laughs at his sister. “But why did the moon leave? Was it not having a good time?”
“Perhaps you have never noticed, Allen, that the moon can only be seen for part of the time. It’s because this earth that we live on spins around. The moon doesn’t really leave. It just seems to.”
“I don’t think I understand.,” he replies. “I thought the earth meant the ground we walk on. That ground spins around? I never saw it spinning. How come I don’t ever see that?”
“The ground we walk on is part of a large (compared to us) ball. Because we only see a little part of it at a time, we don’t notice that it is moving.”
Both cats blink their little eyes and seem puzzled. I suspect the idea is a bit too much for them to take in. “Let’s hear the rest of the story, kids.”
Soon, hints of a rising sun tinge the edges
of the comforting darkness
and the night begins to fade away
“See, there you go again talking about things in the sky moving around.” Allen grumbles.
“Surely you have noticed that sometimes the place we live in is dark and at other times there is light.”
They nodded their heads. “And that’s because everything in the sky is moving around?” Kiki asks.
“Yes, and we are moving around, too.”
“Oh, my. I’m not sure I like that,” says Allen. “Sometimes I like to be still and rest.”
“I think you can do that, and you will not notice that you are moving at all.”
Kiki was tiring of that discussion. “So what happened to the mice and the bugs?”
The mice and their friends
tired from their revelry
and in fear of being discovered
go back into their holes
to sleep away
the brightness of the day
“And the cat never woke up and joined their party?” Allen is not too impressed with the cat in this story. “I would have heard if they made tiniest sound, and then I would have padded in there on my quiet little paws and had some fun, too.”
and those
who think this place is theirs
never ever know
Kiki speaks up. “Wow! Do you think that happens here, in our house, too?”
“I get up sometimes when it’s dark, and I never see any mice dancing here.” Allen still can’t believe that the big orange cat slept through all of the goings-on.
“I hope it doesn’t happen here, in our house,” I tell them. “On the other hand, if we are all asleep, perhaps we would never know, either.”
“Is it time for treats again?” They are both ready for the end of Story Time. I launch myself out of my chair and head for the kitchen to fill their dishes for dinner.
So, we’ll say farewell for today, my friends. You might look around your house if you dare, and see if anyone has been munching on that food you forgot to put away last night. Perhaps there was a party there last night, too.
Have a good week, and let’s hope for good news of all kinds. Stay well. (Oh, yes, I almost forgot ~ The promised links are below.)
The promised links ~
The song, “My Grandfather’s Clock,” published in 1876, lyrics and history:
en.wikipedia.org/…
History of grandfather clocks:
en.wikipedia.org/…
How to tell a cricket from a grasshopper:
a-z-animals.com/…
Click beetles (If bugs make you squirrely, you might want to skip this one. I thought it was interesting):
extensionentomology.tamu.edu/…
This is wonderful, Mina. Thank you. I didn’t know the story of the grandfather clock. That’s romantic. it’s like Mark Twain and Halley’s Comet. It came the year of his birth and when it returned, he died.
Great tail, Mina!