Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker Quiz

Answer: Green

Here is the list of ingredients for Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker:

The wrong end of a telescope, boiled till it is soft
The tails of forty-five brown mice, chopped off with a carving knife and fried in hair oil till crisp
Forty-five brown mice (whose tails have been chopped off) simmered in frog juice for one hour
Special, secret ingredient: an alarm clock, set to go off at 9:00 tomorrow morning, roasted in the oven till crisp and tender

Mix in the mixer on high speed.
While the mixer is going, add the yoke of one gruntle's egg, the claw of a crab cruncher, the beak of a blabbersnitch, the snout of a grovelspirt, and the tongue of a catspringer.

According to the Grand High Witch, "When you have mixed everything together in the mixer, you will have a most marvelous-looking green liquid."

I can't imagine how all that comes out green. But I'm not a witch.

Answer: A liquid

Here is the Grand High Witch's own explanation of how the formula works: "Child eats choc, which has in it Delayed Action Mouse Maker liquid. Child goes home feeling fine. Child goes to bed, still feeling fine. Child wakes up in the morning still OK. Child goes to school, still feeling fine. Formula you understand is delayed action and is not working yet... It is starting to work at exactly 9:00, when the child is arriving at school... Child arrives at school. Delayed Mouse Maker immediately starts to work. Child starts to shrink... Child is not a child any longer. It is a mouse!"

The Grand High Witch must be a terrible person indeed to think up such a dreadful potion! It could put a person off chocolates and candy!

Answer: Sweets (candies) and chocolates

They hide their terrible potion in chocolates and candy. That is why they need to become owners of beautiful, top quality candy stores (sweet shops). They need the loveliest candy and chocolates they can find to lure the poor, unsuspecting children to their doom. You see, the Grand High Witch really is a most terrible person.

Answer: Children

The formula is supposed to be used on children. The Grand High Witch only hates children, not grownups. All the same, I think it would be wise for grownups to be very careful too. You never can tell...

Answer: Yes

If you're preparing a Mouse Maker formula, I suppose it follows that you need to put in mice. I wouldn't be a very good witch. Just reading the recipe left me a little green. But here's what it says: "...you take exactly forty-five brown mice and you chop off their tails with a carving knife and you fry the tails in hair oil until they are nice and crisp." And as for the mice, "You simmer them in frog juice for one hour."

I don't know about you, but I'm beginning not to want my supper!

Answer: One egg

It seems gruntles nest very high up in trees, so their eggs aren't all that easy to get. Maybe that's just as well!

Answer: An alarm clock

If you think about the problem, you see at once that an alarm clock, set for 9:00 tomorrow morning and roasted in the oven must be what gives Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker its delayed action. At least, if you are a dastardly villain like the Grand High Witch you do. I wouldn't have thought of it. Would you?

Answer: 26 seconds

Twenty-six seconds is all it takes to turn a strapping little boy or a pretty little girl into a fuzzy mouse!

Answer: One drop

The Grand High Witch is very careful to repeat that only one drop, one droplet even, is plenty. If you only need one drop, then a single batch of formula is enough to turn a whole lot of children into mice. The thought gives a person shivers!

Answer: He or she might turn into a mouse right away.

The Grand High Witch explains: "An overdose of Delayed Action Mouse Maker will mess up the timing of the alarm clock and cause the child to turn into a mouse too early. A large overdose might even have an instant effect. And, you wouldn't want that, would you?"

If the children started turning into mice right away, the grownups who happened to be around would realize that the witches were responsible for the change and the witches would be arrested and taken to jail. The particularly clever and sneaky part of the whole plan is that the delayed action means the witches will be nowhere near the children when they turn into mice. So the witches will never be suspected, much less caught. As the Grand High Witch points out, "Witches never get caught."