The Tree with Whiskers

Alice Acorn is walking in the road. She is far from her

home. She comes to a stone. On top of it is a lizard 

sunning himself. Alice says, “Hello”. The lizard replies,

“Hi”. He wonders what she wants. Alice says,

“Would you like to see a tree with whiskers?”

The lizard replies, “How odd. Maybe I would.” 

“Then come with me,” Alice says.

Alice turns around then she and the lizard begin walking slowly toward Alice’s home.

On the way a big wind comes up. The lizard catches a long brown leaf and stops a moment.

“I have an idea,” he says. “I’ll lie on top of the leaf and you pull it. It will be a sled.”

“Okay,” Alice replies. So they both keep going toward Alice’s home with Alice pulling leaf and lizard.

 After a while Alice is tired.

“I cannot pull any longer,” she says.

“That’s okay. Let’s think a moment,” says the lizard.

“I can’t pull you for we have no rope to tie to the leaf and to put round my neck,” the lizard tells Alice.

“Look,” says Alice. “There’s an abyss and we can both fit on the leaf. If we push from the top, we can slide to the bottom. What fun it will be.”

“Yes, it will”, the lizard agrees. “Let’s go.”

They both slide joyfully down the abyss. It was a long slide with the wind blowing in their faces.  After laughing, the lizard observes:

“Look, we are not closer to the tree with whiskers but farther away. What do we do now?”

Alice Acorn looks round her. “I think,” she says, “we must forget about the tree with whiskers today. There isn’t enough time. But look, here is a stream with mirrors. It is just as odd.”

The lizard approaches the stream and sees himself in it.

“I am not handsome,” he tells Alice, “but yes, it is just as odd. A stream with mirrors.”

END OF “A TREE WITH WHISKERS”