There are many ways that this story could go now.

Doll Splinter could get to the top of the stairs, go into the attic and find…a ghost! A wiffly waffly kind of ghost with loose white garments and round eyes and a mouth going “ooooooh!”

But she didn’t find that.

Or, at the top of the stairs, in the attic, in a hat box she could find… the Verysmalls poking and stabbing with long hat pins at anything they could find.

But she didn’t find them.

(Thank goodness.)

Maybe, turning left into a teenager’s bedroom, with pictures on the walls, she could find Egg O, perched on a bed, announcing things in a loud stern voice.

But she didn’t.

So what did she find?

Well, at the top of the house,at the top of the the very last stair, was a door to the right.

And the noise, which was louder now,was coming from the room on the right,which, being an attic was the perfect place for rummaging and the perfect place for a small thing making a noise to hide.

So in went Doll Splinter, and in went those wooden arms, into a big,red hat box.

And she was so busy trying on the hat she found inside, that she didn’t notice the little brown mouse, sitting up and looking round, as bold as brass

Can you see it?