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One fine morning in May when Stuart was three years old, he got up early, as usual, washed and dressed himself, took his hat and stick, and went downstairs. Nobody was there but Snowball, the white cat. Snowball was also an early riser. In the mornings he liked to lie on the window-sill and think about the days when he was a kitten.

"Good morning," said Stuart.

"Hello," answered Snowball drily. "You're up early, aren't you?"

Stuart looked at his watch. "Yes," he said, "it's only five minutes past six, but I want to do some exercises."

"Haven't you done all your exercises in the bath-room when you made such a terrible noise? You woke up all the house in order to brush your teeth. I think that your teeth are so small that there is no need to brush them. Do you want to see some good teeth? Look at mine!"

Here Snowball opened his mouth and showed his white teeth, sharp as needles.

"Yours are very nice," said Stuart. "But mine are all right, too. As for exercise, I try to do it every day. I bet my stomach muscles are firmer than yours."

"I bet they are not," said the cat.

"I bet they are," said Stuart. "They are like iron."

"I bet they are not," said the cat.

Stuart wanted to show Snowball that he had very good stomach muscles, but he did not know how to do that. So he looked around the room. There were window shades on the windows which could roll up, each shade with a cord and a ring. This gave Stuart an idea. He climbed to the window-sill, took off his hat and put down his stick.

"You can't do this," he said to the cat. And he ran and jumped onto the ring like an acrobat.

A strange thing happened. When Stuart pulled the ring, the window shade flew up to the top of the window rolling Stuart inside.

"Oh, dear!" said Snowball. He was almost as surprised as Stuart himself. "That will be a lesson to him."

"Help! Let me out!" cried Stuart. He was frightened, and it was very difficult to breath inside the shade. But his voice was too weak and nobody heard him.

Snowball laughed. He did not like Stuart and did not want to let him out. He did not run upstairs and did not tell Mr. and Mrs. Little about the accident. He did a strange thing instead. He quickly looked around, then ran to the window-sill, took Stuart's hat and stick in his mouth, carried them to the kitchen and put them down near the mousehole.

When Mrs. Little came into the kitchen and found Stuart's things on the floor, she screamed loudly.

"It has happened!" she cried.

"What has?" asked her husband.

"Stuart went down the mousehole!"

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This version of Stuart Little was originally published in Moscow, in 1964.  All rights are reserved by respective copyright owners and this version must not be used in any other but private ESL study settings.  Hard or electronic copies for business purposes are prohibited.

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