SOLVED. Children's Picture Book, approx 1960s about a kingdom of mice carrying each other's tails

[Cari]

The setting is a kingdom of mice. The emperor (king) decides he shouldn't have to let his tail drag on the ground, so he tells one of his ministers to carry it. That minister then is too proud to let his tail drag, so he tasks the next person in the chain of command to carry it. And so on, right down the line to the poorest little mouse in the kingdom. They were all following each other, carrying the next guy's tail.

SPOILER:

Finally, the last little mouse is fed up and slams down the tail of the person in front of him. That has a domino effect all the way up the line. And from that day forward, everyone carried his own tail.

NOTE: This is not The King, The Mice and The Cheese. I have that book. But it is from the same era.

[Rainbowheart]

Time to Go House?

“Take hold of my tail,” he told her, “and have the next person take hold of yours.”

As she groped for his tail and found it in the dark, she felt someone behind her fumbling after hers, so she held it out straight till a hand that she thought felt like her mother’s took hold; and then she heard Uncle Stilton’s order being repeated back and back under the grass in soft receding whispers, until all the mice going house were linked together —so many of them she could hardly imagine how long the line might be.

[Cari]

Thanks. That has a similar situation, but it's not the one I remember. In the remembered story, the moral of the story was the issue of pride - everyone had to pick on someone junior to carry his tail. It also had a moral of the king setting an example, because at the end, he had to carry his own tail just like everyone else.

[Orsolya Könyvtáros (formerly Memp)]

The Dr. Seuss story King Looie Katz, originally included in I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories (1969), is about a cat king who doesn't want his tail to drag on the ground and starts off the chain of tail-holding which ends when the last cat slams down a tail. The illustrations being what they are, I could see the creatures being remembered as mice and not cats.

[Cari]

King Looie Katz: That's it!!! Thank you so much for looking. I had the right plot line and the wrong anthropomorphic animal!

[Cari]

SOLVED: King Looie Katz by Dr. Seuss. Thank you!