The Story of the Jumping Mouse

Once there was a mouse. He was busy as all mice are, busy with mice things. But once in a while he would hear an odd sound. He would lift his head, his whiskers wiggling in the air, and he would wonder. One day he scurried up to a fellow mouse and asked him, “Do you hear a roaring in your ears, my brother?”

“No, no,” answered the other mouse, not lifting his busy nose from the ground. “I hear nothing. I am busy now. Talk to me later.”

He asked another mouse the same question and the mouse looked at him strangely. “Are you foolish in your head? What sound?” he asked. And slipped into a hole in a fallen cottonwood tree.

The little mouse shrugged his whiskers and busied himself again, determined to forget the whole matter. But there was that roaring again. It was faint, very faint, but it was there! One day he decided to investigate the sound just a little. Leaving the other busy mice, he scurried a little way and listened again. There it was! Suddenly, someone said hello.

Mouse almost jumped right out of his skin! He arched his back and tail and was about to run.

“Hello,” said the voice again. “It is I, Brother Raccoon.” And sure enough, it was. “What are you doing here all by yourself, little brother?” asked the raccoon.

The mouse blushed and put his nose almost to the ground. “I hear a roaring in my ears and I am investigating it,” he answered timidly.

“A roaring in your ears?” replied the raccoon as he sat down with him. What you hear, little brother, is the river.”

“The river?” Mouse asked curiously. “What is a river?”

“Walk with me and I will show you the river,” Raccoon said.

Little Mouse was terribly afraid, but he was determined to find out once and for all about the roaring. “All right, Raccoon, my brother,” said Mouse. “Lead on to the river. I will walk with you.”

Little Mouse walked with Raccoon. His heart was pounding in his breast. The raccoon was taking him upon strange paths and Little Mouse smelled the scent of many things that had gone by this way. Many times he became so frightened he almost turned back.

Finally, they came to the river. It was huge and breathtaking, deep and clear in places, murky in others. It roared and sang and cried and thundered on its course. Little Mouse saw great and little pieces of the world carried along on its surface.

“It is powerful!” Little Mouse said, fumbling for words.

“It is a great thing,” answered the raccoon, “but here - let me introduce you to a friend.”

In a smoother, shallower place was a lily pad, bright and green. Sitting upon it was a frog, almost as green as the pad it sat on.

“Hello, little brother,” said the frog. “Welcome to the river.”

“I must leave you now,” cut in the raccoon, “but do not fear, little brother, for Frog will care for you now.” And Raccoon left, looking along the river bank for food he might wash and eat.

Little Mouse approached the water and looked into it. He saw a frightened mouse reflected there. “Who are you?” Mouse asked the reflection. “Are you not afraid being that far out into the great river?”

“No,” answered the frog, “I am not afraid. I have been given the gift from birth to live both above and in the river. When Winter Man comes and freezes this medicine, I cannot be seen. But all the while Thunderbird flies, I am here. To visit me, one must come when the world is green. I, my brother, am the keeper of the water.”

“Amazing!” Little Mouse said at last, again fumbling for words.

“Would you like to have some medicine power?” Frog asked.

“Medicine power? Me?” asked Little Mouse. “Yes, yes! If it is possible.”

“Then crouch as low as you can, and then jump as high as you are able. You will have your medicine!” Frog said.

Little Mouse did as he was instructed. He crouched as low as he could and jumped. And when he did, he saw the sacred mountains.

Little Mouse could hardly believe his eyes. But there they were. Then he fell back to earth, and he landed in the river! He quickly scrambled back to the bank. He was wet and frightened nearly to death.

“You have tricked me!” he screamed at the frog.

“Wait,” said Frog. “You are not harmed. Do not let your fear and anger blind you. What did you see?”

“I,” Mouse stammered. “I, I saw the sacred mountains!”

“And you have a new name!” Frog said. “It is Jumping Mouse.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” Jumping Mouse said. “I want to return to my people and tell them of this thing that has happened to me.”

“Go then.” Frog said. “Return to your people. Keep the sound of the medicine river to the back of your head. And you will find your brother mice.”

Jumping Mouse returned to the world of the mice. But no one would listen to him. And because he was wet and had no way of explaining it since there had been no rain, many of the other mice were afraid of him. They believed that he had been spat from the mouth of another animal that had tried to eat him. And they all knew that if he had not been food for the one who wanted him, then he must also be poison for them.

Jumping Mouse lived again among his people. But he could not forget his vision of the sacred mountains. The memory burned in his mind and his heart.

One day he went to the edge of the place of mice and looked out onto the prairie. He looked up for eagles. The sky was full of many spots, each one an eagle. But he was determined to go to the sacred mountains. He gathered all of his courage and ran just as fast as he could onto the prairie. His little heart pounded with excitement and fear.

The ground was rough. But he arched his tail and ran with all his might. He could feel the shadows of the spots upon his back as he ran. All those spots! Finally he ran into a stand of chokecherries. It was cool there and very spacious. There was water, cherries and seeds to eat, grasses to gather for nests, holes to be explored and many, many other busy things to do.

As he was looking around he heard very heavy breathing. He quickly investigated the sound. It came from a great mound of hair with black horns. It was a buffalo. Jumping Mouse could hardly believe the greatness of the being he saw lying there before him. He crept closer.

“Hello, my brother,” said the buffalo. “Thank you for visiting me.”

“Hello, great being,” said Jumping Mouse. “Why are you lying here?”

“I am sick and I am dying,” Buffalo said, “and my medicine has told me that only the eye of a mouse can heal me. But, little brother, there is no such thing as a mouse.”

Jumping Mouse was shocked. “One of my eyes,” he thought, “one of my tiny eyes.”

He scurried back into the stand of chokecherries. But the breathing came harder and slower.

“He will die,” thought Jumping Mouse, “if I do not give him my eye. He is too great a being to let die.”

He went back to where the buffalo lay and spoke. “I am a mouse,” he said with a shaky voice. “And you, my brother are a great being. I cannot let you die. I have two eyes, so you may have one of them.”

The minute he said it, Jumping Mouse’s eye flew out of his head and the buffalo was made whole. He jumped to his feet, shaking Jumping Mouse’s whole world.

“Thank you, my little brother,” said Buffalo. “I know of your quest for the sacred mountains and your visit to the river. You have given me life so that I may give-away to the people. I will be your brother forever. Run under my belly and I will take you to the foot of the sacred mountains, and you need not fear the spots. The eagles cannot see you while you run under me.”

Jumping Mouse ran under the buffalo, secure and hidden from the spots. But with only one eye it was frightening. The buffalo’s great hooves shook the whole world each time he took a step. Finally they came to a place and Buffalo stopped. “This is where I must leave you, little brother.”

“Thank you very much,” said Jumping Mouse. “But you know, it was very frightening running under you with only one eye. I was constantly in fear of your great earth-shaking hooves.”

“Your fear was nothing,” said Buffalo. “for my way of walking is the Sun Dance way, and I always know where my hooves will fall. I now must return to the prairie, my brother. You can always find me there.”

Jumping Mouse immediately began to investigate his new surroundings. There were even more things here than in other places, busier things, and an abundance of seeds and other things mice like. Suddenly he ran upon a grey wolf who was sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

“Hello, brother wolf,” Jumping Mouse said.

The wolf’s ears came alert and his eyes shone. “Wolf! Wolf! Yes, that is what I am, I am a wolf.” But then his mind dimmed again and it was not long before he sat quietly again, without memory as to who he was. Each time Jumping Mouse reminded him, he became excited with the news, and promptly forgot again.

“Such a great being,” thought Jumping Mouse, “but he has no memory.” He went to the centre of this new place and was quiet. He listened for a very long time to the beating of his heart. Then suddenly he made up his mind. He scurried back to where Wolf sat.

“Brother wolf,” he said.

“Wolf! Wolf!” said the wolf.

“Please, brother wolf,” said Jumping Mouse, “please listen to me. I know what will heal you. It is one of my eyes. And I want to give it to you. You are a greater being than I. I am only a mouse. Please take it.”

When Jumping Mouse stopped speaking he eye flew out of his head and the wolf was made whole.

Tears fell down the cheeks of Wolf, but his little brother could not see them, for now he was blind.

“You are a great brother,” said the wolf, “for now I have my memory. But you are blind. I am the guide into the sacred mountains. There is a great medicine lake there. The most beautiful lake in the world. All the world is reflected there. The people, the lodges of the people, and all the beings of the prairies and the skies.”

“Please take me there,” Jumping Mouse said.

The wolf guided him through the pines to the medicine lake. Jumping Mouse drank the water from the lake. The wolf described the beauty to him.

“I must leave you here,” said Wolf, “for I must return so that I may guide others, but I will remain with you as long as you like.”

“Thank you, my brother,” said Jumping Mouse. “But although I am frightened to be alone, I know you must go.”

Jumping Mouse sat there trembling in fear. It was no use running, for he was blind, but he knew an eagle would find him there. He felt a shadow on his back and heard the sound that eagles make. He braced himself for the shock. And the eagle hit. Jumping Mouse went to sleep.

Then he woke up. The surprise of being alive was great, but now he could see! Everything was blurry but the colours were beautiful.

“I can see! I can see!” said Jumping Mouse over and over again.

A blurry shape came toward him. Jumping Mouse squinted hard but the shape remained a blur. “Hello, brother,” a voice said. “Do you want some medicine?”

“Some medicine for me?” asked Jumping Mouse. “Yes! Yes!”

“Then crouch as low as you can,” the voice said, “and jump as high as you can.”

Jumping Mouse did as he was instructed. He crouched as low as he could and jumped! The wind caught him and carried him higher.

“Do not be afraid,” the voice called to him. “Hang on to the wind and trust!”

Jumping Mouse did. He closed his eyes and hung on to the wind and it carried him higher and higher. He opened his eyes and they were clear, and the higher they went the clearer they became. Jumping Mouse saw his old friend upon a lily pad on the beautiful medicine lake. It was the frog.

“You have a new name,” called the frog. “You are Eagle!”

(This story is a legend shared by the native tribes of the prairies.)