29-STORIES BY THE TON!

STORIES BY THE TON! Do you want to know how it all ended? Of course you do, or you wouldn't be reading this! Well, Sally went back to running THE DAILY RAT. But she had to keep all of the promises she had made. She paid her employees lots more money. And they all had a fabumouse time in the Mousehamas. What happened with the writing contest? It was a huge success. I am constantly receiving new stories, There are

so many talented writers out there. I could write a whole book about them! One day, a rodent named FRANZ RATKA came to see me. He was very thin and had huge ears. He said he hadn't left his mouse hole in years. I gasped. His cheese delivery bill must have been enormous! Ratka said he had written a book, THE METAMORPHOSIS,, about a mouse who wakes up one morning and discovers he has turned into a bug! It was fascinating. Another day, I met a mouse named EDGAR ALLAN PAW. He had a mustache and deep-set eyes. He brought me a spooky poem called "The Raven." And another story about a mouse and a beating heart. It was horribly scary. Still, I couldn't put it down. Then I met a little old lady mouse named

AGATHA RATSIE. She was small and spoke with a soft squeak. I was surprised to find out she wrote murder mysteries. Such a sweet, frail mouse. I guess you can't always tell a mouse by her squeak. Agatha wrote some wonderful thrillers. My favorite was called MOUSER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. I was in the middle of a story by a writer named CHEWS DCKENS when my sister popped into my office. She dumped another

huge pile of stories on my desk. How would I ever have time to read them? Oh, I'm not complaining. I mean, I love publishing books. And, of course, my newspaper, The Rodent's Gazette, is my pride and joy. Still, being a publisher is hard work. Really hard work. "Don't forget that at six o'clock you have that CHEESE AND THE MEANING OF LIFE lecturer," Thea reminded me now. "And then at seven- thirty you have that FAMOUS FURBALLS OF

OUR TIME conference. And then at nine you are giving that SELF-DEFENSE FOR THE MEEK AND MILD MOUSE speech at New Mouse University." I sighed. Thea kept on squeaking. She told me she had received a call from SydNey StarFur. It seemed Sally had lied to him. She had told Sydney that she was my childhood friend. He had thought he was hired to play an innocent Joke on me. He had no idea about the evil plan Sally had cooked up. He had called to apologize. "He sounds like a very nice mouse," Thea explained. "Look, he even gave us two free tickets to his show! It starts in twenty minutes. You'd better get moving!" Right then, there was a knock at the door. Mickey Misprint, Sally's proofreader, came in.

He was working for me now. Of course, I was paying him a much higher salary. Mickey's family would never go hungry again. "Mr. Stilton," he squeaked now, panting. "Here are more stories for you. In fact, here are tons more." He piled them everywhere. On my desk. On my couch. On my furry cat rug. More stories? How could I possibly read all of them? I didn't even have time to comb my fur anymore! Just then, my secretary, Mousella, buzzed me. "Your taxi is here, Mr. Stilton!" she