Summary
Summary of The Singing Mouse Stories
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A small singer opens the walls
The narrator’s room holds a worn coat, damaged hunting gear and a low fire. Nothing looks rich, but nothing is locked against a friend. Near midnight, when visitors have gone, a tiny mouse appears, asks for bread and sings. Its song fills the walls with pictures and makes the old fishing rod look new.
The song carries the man into open country and back toward boyhood. His possessions matter because they hold experience and affection. Through the mouse, a bare room becomes a place where youth, friendship and remembered landscapes remain close.
Key idea 2
Water carries memory and hope
Start free to read
Key idea 3
Friendship returns beneath the oak
Start free to read
Key idea 4
Kindness waits for friendship to grow
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Truth reaches beyond walls and books
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Love speaks across absence and sorrow
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Ordinary things hold an inner wealth
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
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 this book is
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. A man sits alone in a plain room with a pine table, a candle, a worn hunting coat and a mended old gun. When his friends have gone home and the fire burns low, a tiny mouse comes out and asks for a bit of bread. Then it sits up on its paws and sings.
The song opens the walls of the room. The man finds himself on a green prairie, beside a boyhood river, at the edge of a hidden lake, or on a hill where a city once stood. Some pieces fill several pages and some fill a single paragraph. All of them look back at youth, friendship, loss and the open country, and they look for comfort there. In this summary you will meet the room and its small singer first, then follow the sketches in turn, and then ask what they add up to. Let us begin with the room.
In this summary
- 1A Mouse Sings in a Lonely RoomFree
- 2Waters, Lakes and Roses Carry Memory
- 3Small Fables of Oaks and Hours
- 4Tales of Mountains, Hunters and Warriors
- 5Truth, a Vanished City and Passing Shadows
- 6Love, Loss and the House of Dreams
Key point 1 of 6
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.
The next piece, The Burden of a Song, shows what that song can do. The mouse sings an old verse about young blood and a saddle, and the man feels his youth return. He is carried across prairies in a thousand shades of green, up into the mountains, where he lays his troubles on their broad shoulders, and then to a frozen shore on the Inland Seas at night. There a rising moon lights the ice, and a path of silver lies on the water beyond it. He climbs the bank, sore and tired, and sees a lighted window in a farmhouse across the snow. The old song's last verse comes back, and it speaks of creeping home to find one beloved face.
The third piece, The Little River, goes back to boyhood. The mouse sings, and the man stands again by the stream he knew as a child, with a willow wand and a linen line. He catches his first bright fish and cannot bear to lose it. Then he follows a tall figure through the autumn hills and sees his first rabbit fall. But he notices that the old dog hunts closer to the heel now, and that the tall figure stoops a little more.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Check yourself
What does the mouse’s singing do for the narrator?
Right. “The song opens the walls of the room.”Not quite. “The song opens the walls of the room.”
What lesson does the mouse draw from the man feeding the dog?
Right. “The mouse draws the lesson that friends are made by waiting, with kindness and patience.”Not quite. “The mouse draws the lesson that friends are made by waiting, with kindness and patience.”
What does the mouse suggest lasts while everything else changes?
Right. “The mouse says that thoughts and memories last when all else changes, that kindness can win a savage heart, and that a plain bed, a worn coat and a low fire can hold as much as a palace.”Not quite. “The mouse says that thoughts and memories last when all else changes, that kindness can win a savage heart, and that a plain bed, a worn coat and a low fire can hold as much as a palace.”
Questions about The Singing Mouse Stories
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.
Is The Singing Mouse Stories a true story?
It is imaginative writing, not a record of facts. Emerson Hough, who died in 1923, draws on real outdoor places and boyhood memories, but the singing mouse and its visions belong to the dream world of the pieces.
Is The Singing Mouse Stories easy to read?
The pieces are short and can be read one at a time in an evening. The style is warm and musical, so it suits reading aloud.
