Наталия Боголюбова The Button Witch
CHAPTER ONE
The book eater 
Quick and agile, the mouse jumped from its burrow to find food. It would often sneak into barns and cellars in search of grain. But today, the mouse wanted to treat itself and sneaked into the library.
"Book pages are so delicious! They taste just like potato chips," thought the mouse as it happily ran around the shelves in search of a book it could chew on. Two hours passed. Finally, the mouse's belly was full and satisfied.
"Shoo! What have you done, you stupid, greedy mouse? You've robbed me of the joy of reading my magic books! How dare you?" The wizard shouted and grabbed the mouse by the tail. "I could have crushed you with a single spell, but I have no right to kill a living creature. But you shall have your punishment, for you are the cause of my loss of so many precious books! I may never get those rare magical pages back!" The wizard's eyes fell on the buttons of his vest. He said, "You will never eat anything but tasteless buttons again! Your life will be so meager and gray that you will look with envy at other people who live happy lives. Your hunger will never be satisfied. You will have to eat dozens of buttons every day just to survive." The mouse flashed its black, beady eyes in anger.
