Incinerates (“To a Mouse”)

In a small village in Scotland, there was a farmer named Robbie who lived in a cozy little cottage with his wife and children. One chilly winter evening, he was sitting by the fire in his living room, reading a book and enjoying the warmth of the flames. Suddenly, he noticed a small brown mouse scurrying across the floor, looking for food.

Feeling sorry for the little mouse who looked lost and hungry, Robbie decided to leave out a piece of cheese for it to eat. But as the mouse greedily went to gobble it up, it accidentally ran over a small flame from the fireplace.

In an instant, the flame caught on the mouse’s fur and it started to burn, causing it to frantically run around the room. Robbie quickly grabbed a cloth and tried to put out the fire, but it was too late. The mouse had already been incinerated.

As the incident played out, Robbie couldn’t help but think of the well-known poem by Robert Burns called “To a Mouse“, which talks about the unfortunate fate of a mouse and how life can often be unpredictable and harsh. And just like that, the crossword clue ‘Incinerates (“To a Mouse”)’ was linked to its answer ‘BURNS‘.

From that day on, Robbie made a promise to be extra careful around fires and to always remember the little mouse who taught him an important lesson about life’s fragility. And whenever he came across the “BURNS” crossword clue in the local newspaper, he couldn’t help but chuckle as he thought of the small mouse who inadvertently inspired it all.