By Tony Sharp
Mick the mouse did not want to be a mouse, He wanted to be a Condor. A Condor is the largest bird in the world with the widest wing span.
Mick dreamed of souring on the wind and never having to flap his wings. Oh, to go so high and see forever and ever.
His parents had taught him to be a good mouse. Sometimes it’s not good to wish for something which might not be good for you. Wanting the wrong thing often makes you unhappy.
But that night Mick the mouse had a dream. He was given a Condor’s body.
That is when his problems started. The first thing that happened when he tried to fly was that he found he could not take off.
Mick the mouse did not know an important fact – that the only way for a Condor to take off requires a fifteen knot head wind. He ran as fast as he could and jumped off the cliff, determined to find out what flying was like.
If only he could be happy being what he was supposed to be, then he would not have hurt himself.
He tumbled down the cliff face getting briused and scratched. Ouch! That hurt so much!
Finally he fell off a ledge and gained flying speed. Oh! Flying was wonderful! It was true, he could see for ever and ever into the distance and he did not have to flap his wings.
Because he was a mouse he did not know the higher you go the colder it gets. Above him were the big black clouds of a thunder storm and the rising air was sucking him higher and higher. He did not know how to come down.
When the lighting and thunder started he got very frightened and started to cry. Then hail began to hit him and then he got sucked into the cloud and could not see the ground any more.
Oh I wished I stayed a mouse, Mick thought.
He was so happy to wake up and find it had been all a bad dream. He told all his friends never to wish to be something you are not supposed to be.
He had learned a very important lesson: coveting has bad consequences.
You ask your parents to explain those big words.
Now good night from Lu Lu.
Mick the mouse had so much to learn. He told everyone that from now on he just wanted to stay a mouse and learn to be a good one.
Mick’s parents had taught him about the dangers of cats. Mick’s home was under the floor boards of a big old house. Their home did not have a door, just a small hole where a knot of wood had fallen out. It was a perfect door for mice, just big enough to get through but too small for cats.
Have you ever heard of the seventh deadly sin of greed? Mick the mouse came out late at night to find food. He would always peep out the hole to see if the cat was waiting to catch him.
To his amazement, just outside his hole was a huge pile of food laying on the ground. That day had been someone’s birthday party and there was a lot of food left over.
This was the most food Mick had ever seen. So he started to have a feast. It was so delicious.
Chocolate cake, sandwiches and, best of all, cream puffs. Mick ate and ate, till he could eat no more. He was being a greedy mouse. Then because of his greed, he nearly got caught by the cat.
He saw the cat coming and ran for the hole but he was so fat with food he could not fit through the hole to his house.
“Help, help!” he called to his family.
“The cat’s coming after me!”
“Help, help!”
His family came running to the hole in the boards, which was the entrance to their home to find Mick stuck half way in. They grabbed both his hands and pulled with all their might.
Mick popped through, and they all tumbled over one another just in time to look back and see the cat’s eye looking in from outside.
Mick’s father said “I’ve told you not to be greedy, now go to your room, maybe now you have learned your lesson.”
Mick had learned his lesson. He knew he was very lucky not have been eaten by the cat and now he had pains in this tummy for eating too much.
He cried himself to sleep and in the morning. His father came and sat on his bed to tell him how much they loved him and to explain again the dangers of cats and of being too greedy.
Mick the mouse had lost a few hairs from the end of his tail. The funny thing is, the cat had to spit them out.
Mick’s family had only rescued him in the nick of time.
Because he was little, he still had a lot to learn.
Cassy the cat was angry, very angry. She had missed catching the mouse.
She waited and waited and waited by the mouse hole, for a mouse to come out.
But no mouse came.
THE END
