The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly (5 page)

Suddenly the wind started blowing.

“Why is the wind blowing so hard?” asked Pine Cone.

“Don’t know,” replied Pepper Pot. “It wasn’t blowing a
minute ago. See how big the waves are.”

They found a rock pool out of the wind and hunkered
down.

“Sing your Crab Song,” said Pepper Pot.

Pine Cone sang:

“Underneath the water blue,

Is there a crab

In this rock pool?

If there is

Then let us see—

Out you come

On the count of three—

One, Two, THREE!”

There was a crab in the rock pool. It scuttled
sideways out of the water and stopped in front of them.

“Who called?” Crab asked.

“I did,” said Pine Cone. “Did you hear me calling?”

“I heard you,” replied Crab, “and my legs walked me up
here without my permission. How did you do that?”

“It’s my Crab Calling Song,” replied Pine Cone. “We’re
looking for crystals.”

“Then why did you call me?” asked Crab. “I’m not a
crystal!”

“We don’t live here like you do,” said Pepper Pot.
“Have you seen any big ones?”

“I have,” said Crab. “Come with me.”

Crab scuttled over the rocks towards the cliffs. “It
sure is windy,” he said, looking puzzled. “Just like a storm—but I don’t see
any clouds.”

Crab scuttled into a narrow crack in the cliff. Pine
Cone and Pepper Pot followed. They had to shuffle sideways just like Crab to
get in. After a few feet the crack opened out into a cave.

“There,” said Crab, pointing with his claw to the back
of the cave. “Now’s a good time to see it.”

The sun shone through the opening and settled on a
blue crystal. It was huge.

“Go close and look inside,” said Crab.

Pine Cone and Pepper Pot went and peered inside. It
was dark blue, very dark blue—like the sky at midnight.

“We see stars!” shouted the gnomes together. “They’re
twinkling. Lots of them!”

“Look more carefully,” said Crab. “Look into the
center.”

The gnomes gazed in hard.

“A sun!” cried Pepper Pot. “A yellow sun in a blue
sky, and thousands of stars twinkling.”

They peered for a long time. They had never seen such
a thing.

The sun moved in the sky and stopped shining into the
cave.

“It’s gone now,” they said, disappointed.

“You can always come back,” said Crab.

“We will! Oh, we will!” replied the gnomes, and
followed Crab out of the Crystal Cave.

Jeremy Mouse didn’t want to walk along the beach with
Tiptoes, and looking for crystals was something gnomes do. So he ran off to
visit Jemima Mouse. She lived in Sandy Bank where the sand dunes met the
forest.

“Jemima Mouse, Jemima Mouse,” he called. “Yoo-hoo, are
you at home?”

Jemima Mouse poked her head out of the doorway. “What
are you doing here?” she asked in surprise.

“We came to untangle Octopus,” Jeremy Mouse replied.

“Not again!” she laughed. “When will he ever learn to
count to eight?”

Jeremy Mouse shook his head. He felt shy. He liked
Jemima. She had beautiful fur and an extra long tail. “Let’s pick
blackberries,” he said, “they’re ripe.”

The blackberries were very ripe. They were shiny and
sweet.  Jeremy Mouse climbed along a blackberry bramble and inched towards the
end, hanging on tight. The branch dipped its head towards the ground until
Jemima could pick the juicy fruit.

“Be careful,” she said, as the branch bobbed up and
down, “don’t fall off.”

Suddenly the wind started blowing. It happened so
quickly that Jeremy Mouse did not have time to get off the bramble.

“Hang on!” cried Jemima. “Hang on!”

 “I’m hanging as hard as I can,” shouted Jeremy Mouse,
as the wind bobbed the branch up and down, side to side, and even round and
round. Suddenly a fierce gust blew and Jeremy Mouse couldn’t hang on anymore.
Jemima saw him sail into the air like a bird, with his legs and tail waving in
the wind. She could not hear clearly what he was saying before he vanished out
of sight, but it sounded like, “HEEEEEELLLLLLLP!!!”

“Jeremy Mouse, Jeremy Mouse, where are you?”she 
cried, running to look for him.

“Here I am,” he called.

Jemima ran in circles, but could not find him.

“Here I am,” called Jeremy Mouse again, but she still
couldn’t see him.

“Look up, Jemima. I’m in the tree.”

She looked up, and there he was,  safe and sound at
the top of a birch tree.

“You can see forever from here,” he called. “I see the
cliffs, and the rock pools, and Tiptoes walking on the beach—even Running
River. And look! I can also see our acorn boat! It’s on the shore. Let’s tell
Tiptoes.”

He scurried down the tree as quickly as he could, and
they  ran to tell Tiptoes what they had found.

Pine Cone and Pepper Pot waved goodbye to Crab as he
clambered into his rock pool.

“It’s getting late,” said Pine Cone. “Let’s find
Tiptoes and Jeremy Mouse.”

They climbed over the rocks to the beach.

“There they are—and Jemima Mouse too,” said Pepper
Pot, pointing down the shore. “What are they pulling out of the water? It looks
like a boat.”

“It is a boat,” said Pine Cone as they got closer.

“Look what we found,” shouted Jeremy Mouse. “It’s our
acorn boat. Tiptoes says the storm blew her from the riverbank and Running
River carried her out to sea. Now the wind has blown her back again. She’s had
an adventure.”

“By my beard,” said Pine Cone, “how else could she get
here? Now you can sail home.”

“It is getting late,” said Tiptoes. “Jeremy Mouse and
I will sail, and you can row along with us.”

“We’re staying another day,” replied Pepper Pot. “We
saw a beautiful crystal and want to see it again tomorrow.”

Jeremy Mouse scratched his head. He did not understand
why anyone would want to look at a crystal two days in a row—but, of course, he
had not seen the blue one in the Crystal Cave.

Tiptoes and Jeremy Mouse pushed their boat into the
water and climbed in.

“Goodbye Pine Cone and Pepper Pot. Goodbye Jemima Mouse,”
they called, as they sailed up Running River.

“Goodbye,” waved Jemima Mouse and the gnomes.
“Cheerio.”

The Sun hung low in the sky and the wind blew them
steadily along. They passed the House of Duck. She sat in her nest with her
ducklings. Some were asleep already, and some were peeking out from under her
wings. They passed Big Rock too, but it was bare.

Slowly the Sun sank out of sight. The silver moon
climbed into the sky and Running River was covered with dancing moonbeams.

When they tied their acorn boat to the shore, stars
were twinkling brightly and the wind was only a gentle breeze.

“Good night, Jeremy Mouse,” sang Tiptoes from her
acorn house high in the Great Oak Tree.

“Good night, Tiptoes,” called Jeremy Mouse from his
house in amongst the roots. Then he curled his tail round his head, and went to
sleep.