Free Bless this Mouse by Lois Lowry

oil!" she said aloud. "You have to saturate the glued parts of the victim with olive oil, Roderick. Do we have any? Is there some in the kitchen?"
    Roderick nodded. "In the pantry. But it's a big can, brand new, hasn't been opened yet."
    "Could we bite through it?"
    "Not tin. No."
    "Unscrew the lid?"
    "No. Not even the church ladies can get it open. They always call in the sexton to help. And even
he
grunts and groans."
    Lucretia wailed loudly. "Help! Help me!" Hildegarde could see another whisker rip off.
    "Quiet, Lucretia! You got yourself into this. You should never have been in here. I'm going to help you, but you have to keep still."
Dumb thing to say. Of course she'll keep still. All four paws are glued tight.
    Hildegrade remembered something. It might work. No way to know. But it was the only hope.

    "See that shelf?" Hildegarde pointed to a high shelf on which stood a glass container decorated with silver filigree. "I have to get up there."
    "Shouldn't be too hard," Roderick said. "You climb things higher than that all the time. What's in that bottle?"
    Hildegarde didn't answer him. She was still thinking. From the place at the foot of the drapery, Lucretia let out another wail of misery. Hildegarde ignored that. "Roderick," she said, "you must go out to the sanctuary. Has anyone arrived yet?" He peeked out the door and shook his head. They could still hear Trevor pounding away on the organ in the loft. But there were no other people in the church.
    "Go bite into a cushion. Any cushion. Can you do that?"
    Roderick nodded uncertainly. "I guess so. Then what? Do I have to eat a cushion? I'm not sure my digestive tract can—"
    "No. Don't eat it. Pull out some stuffing and drag it back here."
    "Why?"

    Hildegarde looked at him impatiently. "You'll see. We don't have much time, Roderick! Father Murphy is going to be here any second. Bring back the stuffing. I'll be up on that shelf. Go!"
    Roderick scurried away.
    "And you: be quiet!" Hildegarde called to Lucretia. Then she jumped to the arm of a chair, and from there to the sink counter. She eyed the distance to the shelf. It was still pretty far. She jumped next to a hook on the wall, and from there took a deep breath, then leapt to the shelf.
    There! Now she was where she needed to be. Not a bad leap for an old lady, she thought.
    She stood erect, held tightly with her paws to the glass bottle, and nudged at the stopper with her nose. The cork moved slightly. She nudged again. And again.
There.
It was out. It bounced once on the shelf, and fell to the carpeting.
    "Roderick?" she called. He appeared in the doorway, dragging a length of gray cushion stuffing with his mouth. Still holding it, he looked up at her questioningly.
    "Good!" she said. "Now I need that up here. Jump first to the arm of the chair. Don't drop the stuffing!"
    He did that, and looked up at her again.
    "Now to the sink. It's an easy jump."
    He made it to the sink.
    "Get a really good grip on the stuffing now, Roderick, because the next one's quite a leap!"
    Looking nervous, Roderick rearranged the position of his teeth a bit. "Over and up to that hook," she directed him. "You can do it! I did!"
    From the trap on the floor came a small voice. "I'm praying for you!" Lucretia called.
    Well, that's a first,
thought Hildegarde. "Go, Roderick!"
    He took a deep breath, around the stuffing, and jumped to the hook.
    "Now to the shelf!" she called to him.
    He did it, and dropped the stuffing by her side.
    "That was scary," he said. "And it was scary in the sanctuary, with the organ playing! I grabbed a cushion in the first pew, and—"
    "Later, Roderick. Tell me later. No time now. I need you to wrap my tail with the stuffing."
    He looked very puzzled. But he followed Hildegarde's directions and carefully wound the gray fluffy material around her tail as she held it out to him.
    "Good. Ignatious said to use a Q-tip, but of course we don't have one. This should do. Now stand right here. I'm going to climb