2 h 17 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the smallest creatures and quietest days hold the things most worth noticing?
In The Singing Mouse Stories, Emerson Hough brings together short, gentle tales of nature, animals and remembered days. His eye for the land shapes a world of outdoor life and simple pleasures. Here, ordinary things invite a closer look, and small moments offer room for feelings that a busy day can leave unnoticed.
The collection explores memory and the wisdom hidden in everyday life. Its themes include a writer shaped by open country, the feelings small creatures can carry, and the weight of remembered days. Care for animals and respect for the land give these tales their quiet appeal, without the rush of a fast, busy plot.
What you’ll discover
- An eye for nature Look closely at outdoor life with a writer drawn to the land.
- Small creatures, deep feelings Discover how animal tales make room for patience, fear, courage and home.
- The pull of memory Explore remembered days and the feelings that give ordinary moments their weight.
- Lessons close at hand Consider how care for animals and respect for the land can offer wisdom.
- Room to read slowly Enjoy short tales in small pieces, with time to linger over simple pleasures.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love campfires, rivers, oak woods and mountain trails, who enjoy short pieces to read by lamplight, and who like dreamy stories about memory, friendship and the quiet comfort of nature.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Mouse Sings in a Lonely Room
- Waters, Lakes and Roses Carry Memory
- Small Fables of Oaks and Hours
- Tales of Mountains, Hunters and Warriors
- Truth, a Vanished City and Passing Shadows
- Love, Loss and the House of Dreams
Who’s who
- The Singing MouseA tiny creature with a bright red eye that comes out at midnight for bread and sings visions of a better world.
- The narratorA lonely man in a plain room with a worn coat and an old gun, who longs for his youth and for lost friends.
- The younger friend at the oaksA man who camps year after year beneath a great oak with an older friend, and keeps their custom of a blessing.
- The two boys on the roadTwo small brothers who wander far from home near the Delectable Mountains, and find the hunter's spirit when a squirrel crosses their path.
- The princess of the golden shoesA young Egyptian woman, long dead, whose small golden shoes rest on the narrator's table and who stands before him in silk.
- The young man who asks what Truth isA seeker who questions priests and studies the faiths of every land, hoping to learn what Truth is and where the spark of life goes.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 17 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Die Geschichten von der Singenden Maus in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Die Geschichten von der Singenden Maus
by Emerson Hough · 1895
A lonely man in a bare room feeds a Singing Mouse, and its song carries him to Lake Belle-Marie and a boyhood river.
Easy read2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Singing Mouse Stories is a book of short prose sketches by Emerson Hough, an American writer who knew the plains, the mountains and the hunting trail, and who died in 1923. Each piece is a small night scene.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Mouse Sings in a Lonely Room
The first sketch sets the whole pattern. The narrator shows you his room. There is a table and a fire, and there are no keys, which means nothing is locked against a friend. His coat hangs on the wall, a little worn. The barrels of his old gun are worn too, the stock of his rifle was broken in the mountains and crudely mended, and his fishing rod has a broken tip and fraying silk. He asks you not to mock these poor belongings.
But the Singing Mouse will not come out while a visitor is there. Only near midnight, when the fire is low and the room is still, does it appear. It sits up, turns a bright red eye on the man, and begs for bread. Then it sings. While it sings, the fire blazes, the walls fill with pictures and the old rod looks new. He calls himself rich, because the world the mouse shows him is broader and kinder than the one outside his door.
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What is The Singing Mouse Stories about?
It is a set of short sketches in which a lonely man in a plain room is visited at midnight by a tiny singing mouse. Its song carries him to prairies, rivers, lakes and mountains, and to thoughts of love, memory and loss.
Who is the Singing Mouse?
The Singing Mouse is a dream creature with a bright red eye who comes out when the fire is low. It stands for the voice of imagination and memory, and it always answers the narrator's questions with calm, kind words.
What does only the shadows are real mean?
In The Bell and the Shadows, the mouse says that life is constant change, while thoughts and memories stay. The shadows are those memories and thoughts, and they last longer than anything we can touch.
The author
Emerson Hough
1857–1923 · American Western novelist
Emerson Hough was an American writer born in Newton, Iowa, in 1857. He worked as a journalist and lived in Chicago. He wrote novels and nonfiction about the American West. His books include The Mississippi Bubble, published in 1902, and The Covered Wagon, published in 1922. He died in Evanston, Illinois, in 1923.
More by Emerson Hough
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