Cheezer came through the hole on the right side of the maze. “Squeak, where are you?” he called.

“Over here!” Squeak squeaked back. “Coming in from the left!”

Cheezer twitched his whiskers. He could smell the delicious cheese waiting at the end of the maze. “I think it’s Swiss today,” he said to Squeak.

“No, I smell cheddar,” Squeak replied.

Both mice were scrambling through the maze as fast as their little feet could go. They knew that’s what the humans wanted them to do. Sometimes they thought they’d just sit there and let the humans worry a bit. But the smell of the cheese was too enticing to resist.

Suddenly, Cheezer stopped. Something was different. Instead of a solid wall, Cheezer saw a door going up and down. “Squeak!” he yelled. “Something new!”

Squeak came skittering to a halt. He was starting at a similar door, raising and lowering quite quickly. “There’s one on my side too,” he said to Cheezer.

“What do we do?” asked Cheezer.

“Run through?” wondered Squeak.

“But what if it closes on us?” said Cheezer. “What if it comes right down on our tails?”

Cheezer and Squeak shuddered at the thought. They sat for a while watching the doors open and close.

“I have an idea,” said Cheezer. “What if we time the door so we know exactly wen it’s going to come down. Then we can run through without it getting us.

“Ok,” said Squeak. “But how can we time it?”

Cheezer sat on his paws. He wrapped his tail around his body. “I don’t know,” he said softly.

“How about a song?” suggested Squeak.

“Brilliant!” said Cheezer.

The two mice sang the only song they knew. Three Blind Mice. “We really need to learn a better song,” said Squeak.

“Yes,” said Cheezer. “Cut off their tails with a carving knife. It’s quite gruesome really.”

The song was gruesome, but it got the job done. The mice figured out exactly when to go to make it through the door before it shut. They wrapped their tails around themselves and ran.

When they got to the other side, they slumped against the walls, breathing hard. After a few moments, their noses got them up again. “Onward!” said Cheezer.

“To the cheese!” said Squeak. And off they went.