Field Trip to Niagara Falls
Page 5
—
shortcut
through the
woods.
red, orange, brown, gold.
If I were an artist, I would have painted
a picture. But I’m not. In fact, I was the
only mouselet at Little Tails Academy to
ever fail paw painting.
I trudged along, breathing in the fresh,
crisp air. I really am a nature lover at
heart.
“Isn’t it magnificent, Geronimo?”
Miss Angel Paws said.
Benjamin and his friends were
running ahead. At last, I was alone
with the teacher. I decided now was my
chance. I had to find out more about this
beautiful mouse. Maybe we could go out to
dinner sometime. I wondered if she would
like Le Squeakery. It’s my favorite French
restaurant.
“So, um, Miss Angel Paws,” I began
shyly. “Are you married?”
Miss Angel Paws shook her head. A big
tear rolled down her fur. Then she collapsed
in a fit of sobs.
Oh, why did I have such rotten luck with
female mice? If they weren’t crying, they
were running away from me.
The teacher pulled herself together.
“Sorry,” she
sniffed
. “I am not married.
But I was
in love
once, a long, long time
ago. . . .”
Carefully, she opened a locket that she wore
around her neck. Inside was a whisker.
“This is his whisker,” Miss Angel Paws
explained. “It is all I have left of him. The
last time I saw him, he was being chased by
an angry cat. I swore I would never fall in
love again
.”
I sighed. What a sad, sad story. I felt bad
for the whiskerless mouse. I felt bad for Miss
Angel Paws
. Right then, it began to rain.
The water poured down in buckets.
M
i
s
s
A
n
g
e
l
P
a
w
s
’
s
l
o
c
k
e
t
75
Love Under a
Cheese-CoLored
UmbreLLa
Suddenly, a mouse appeared out of
nowhere. He was carrying a large CHEESE-
COLORED umbrella.
“Please, allow me,” he said softly to Miss
Angel Paws. He held the umbrella over her
head and smiled.
The two rodents stared at each other.
They stared and stared. I wondered what the
staring contest was all about. Then I noticed
something. The mouse with the umbrella was
missing a whisker. Could it be? I wondered.
Just then, the two mice clasped paws. “It’s
you!” they squeaked together.
Well, that answered that question. It was
76
all pretty amazing. I mean, what were the
chances Miss Angel Paws would find
her lost love at Niagara Falls? That’s like
finding a cheese cracker in an overflowing
garbage can. It takes more than just digging.
It takes luck!
I was happy for the teacher. At least
someone was having a lucky day. I, on the
other paw, was not. The rain seeped into
poured into my ears. I was getting soaked.
I could see the little mice huddled together
in a dry cave up ahead.
Meanwhile, the two love mice had the
cheese-colored umbrella to protect them.
Not that they seemed to notice it was
my whiskers. It
my fur. It
dribbled down
Miss Angel Paws
Gentle Mouse
rainstorm
raining. They looked like they were under
some kind of magic spell. The kind that
makes you forget where you are.
I sighed. I wished I were under a
Then I could forget I was standing
outside in the middle of a torrential
m
a
g
i
c
s
p
e
l
l
.
79
A reAl
gentle Mouse
That night, we sat around a
crackling campfire. It turned
out Miss Angel Paws’s friend
was a forest ranger. His name
was Gentle Mouse. I
wanted not to like him.
After all, I came on this
trip just to spend more
time with Miss Angel Paws.
But how could I hate a rodent
with a name like that?
Gentle Mouse knew a
lot about nature. He
showed us a maple leaf.
The sap from maple trees can be boiled
down and made into maple sugar or
maple syrup. When winter turned into
spring, Native Americans would make V-
shaped slashes in a maple tree trunk and
collect the sap in a vessel. Then they
would boil the sap down into sugar.
The early European settlers
learned this way of getting
maple sugar from the
Native Americans.
“From this
tree
, we get maple syrup,”
Gentle Mouse explained. He told the class
how they could start their own collection of
dried leaves.
maple syrup
Gather some leaves that have fallen to the ground.
Take care to choose the most beautiful ones — with
lots of different colors, shapes, and dimensions.
As soon as you get home, clean the leaves well. To
dry them, place them between two sheets of paper
inside a thick book.
When the leaves are dry and flat, glue them in a
notebook or put them in a photo album.
Next to each leaf, write its name and the date it
was collected.
Near each leaf’s common name, you can write
its botanical name, which can be found in an
encyclopedia or field guide.
How To Make a Collection
of Dried Leaves
Elm
(Ulmus
americana)
Paper Birch
(Betula
papyrifera)
American
Beech
(Fagus
grandifolia)
American
Chestnut
(Castanea
dentata)
cheeP . . . cheeP . . .
cheeP . . . cheeP . . .
The next morning, we
went for a hike through the woods. I tried to
keep up with the group, but I kept tripping
over rocks and twigs. Did I mention I’m not
much of a sports mouse?
Gentle Mouse pointed out the different
plants along the way.
“This is a sugar maple. Its leaf is on the
Canadian flag,” he explained. “This
is a chestnut tree. Has anyone ever
tried a chestnut?”
Just then, I saw two beady eyes blinking
behind the bushes. “Look, a fox,” Gentle
Mouse whispered excitedly.
I gulped. I was okay with plants, but wild
animals weren’t exactly my cup of cheddar.
They can be a little scary. No, make that
downright terrifying!
I scampered past the fox.
Gentle Mouse was busy pointing out other
6. American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
5. Paper Birch
Betula papyrifera
4. Vine Maple
Acer circinatum
1. Sugar Maple
Acer saccharum
2. Norway Maple
Acer platanoides
3. Red Maple
Acer rubrum
trees and their
leaves
9. Red Oak
Quercus rubra
7. American Beech
Fagus grandifolia
8. American Elm
Ulmus americana
10. Pitch Pine
Pinus rigida
11. Red Pine
Pinus resinosa
12. Balsam Fir
Abies balsamea
evergreens
1
12
2
10
11
WOODLAND ANIMALS
OF NORTH AMERICA
1. Opossum
2. Northern Cardinal
3. Moose
4. Flying Squirrel
5. Woodpecker
6. Wolf
7. Cottontail Rabbit
8. Raccoon
9. Skunk
10. Beaver
11. River Otter
12. Deer
4
7
5
6
9
8
3
animals. We saw a beaver, a raccoon, and
even a moose with huge antlers.
I couldn’t believe how many wild animals
we came across. Suddenly, I heard a loud
chirping. Cheep! Cheep!
I followed the chirping to an oak tree. A
little bird was lying on the ground.
“Help! It’s fallen and it can’t get up!” I
told Gentle Mouse. “What should we do?”
1. When you find a little bird fallen to the ground, look
for its nest around that area. Leave the bird alone and
wait a little while ... Its parents could come to claim it.
2. If there is no nest, pick the bird up from the ground gently.
3. If the bird is very small and still without feathers, you need to
feed it, using a dropper.
4. If the bird has feathers, take a look at its beak. If it’s short and
strong, feed it grain seeds. If it’s long and thin, feed it insects.
5. Keep the bird in a warm place that is similar to
its nest, like a box with a woolen cloth.
6. As soon as the bird is able to fly, set it free.
And remember, ask a parent or adult before
touching any wild animal!
H
ow
to
G
ive
F
irst
A
id
to
A
Bird
“
I
t
’
s
a
l
i
t
t
l
e
b
i
r
d
!
”
C
h
e
e
p
.
.
.
c
h
e
e
p
.
.
.
c
h
e
e
p
.
.
.
90
the Forest is
on Fire!
Gentle Mouse showed us how to make a
nest using a box and a towel. We found some
seeds and fed them to the bird. It let out a
happy chirp. Then it started smoking.
Holey cheese! What was in those seeds?
Then I realized the smoke wasn’t coming
from the bird. It was filling the air around
us!
“FIRE!” someone screamed.
Gentle Mouse called for help on his cell
phone. “
Hurry! The forest is on fire
!” he
cried. “Someone must have left a campfire
burning. Send a plane right away!”
Gentle Mouse told everyone to stay calm.
He divided us up into two teams.
91
The first team dug fire trenches.
“If we cut down all of the plants, the
fire
will have nothing to burn,”
Gentle Mouse explained.
The second team formed a long chain that
ended at a nearby brook. The first mouse
in line filled a pail with
water
. Then he
passed it down the line. The last mouse in
line threw the water on the flames.
We worked like pack rats, but
the heat was becoming unbearable.
My fur was scorched. The
smoke was making me choke.
Suddenly, a miracle happened. We heard
the sound of engines. It was a plane
carrying an enormouse tank filled with
water! The plane dumped the water onto
the flames and then left to pick up more
water from the lake. We were saved! But
before we could celebrate, Gentle Mouse
began shouting. “Has anyone seen
Miss Angel Paws?”
“I saw her running toward those bushes.
I think she was trying to help a wounded
fawn,” Kay cried.
Gentle Mouse yelled. “
’ll save you!”
He disappeared in a cloud of smoke. A few
minutes later, he returned. He was carrying
the teacher in his paws. “My hero,” giggled
Miss Angel Paws. “He saved the fawn, too!”
I felt a twinge of jealousy. Why couldn’t
I be someone’s hero?
Still, I had to admit,
Miss Angel Paws and
Gentle Mouse were a
match made in mouse
heaven.
“
D
o
n
’
t
w
o
r
r
y
,
M
i
s
s
A
n
g
e
l
P
a
w
s
!
”
94
hAve i got A
surPrise For you!
That night, the two love mice made an
announcement. Can you guess what it was?
Yes, they had decided to get married.
“hooray!” cried the class. Everyone
was so excited. But they were even more
excited when they heard that Miss Angel Paws
and Gentle Mouse wanted to get married
immediately. They had been
missing each other for
years. They didn’t
want
to wait any longer.
“We can do it
right here in Niagara
Falls!” Miss Angel
Paws squeaked.
95
We put our heads together to plan the
ceremony. It would have to be pretty
simple. There would be no wedding
gown or fancy wedding cake. After all,
where could we get a dress and a cake in the
middle of the wilderness?
I called my sister to ask for her advice. As
I said, that mouse just loves a challenge.
An hour later, my cell phone rang. It
was Thea. “Hey, Gerry Berry, have I got a
surprise for you!” she squeaked.
I
gulped
. A surprise? From my sister?
The last time she surprised me, she carpeted
my whole apartment in
pink cat fur
!
96
F
l
a
p
,
f
l
a
p
,
f
l
a
p
.
.
.
v
r
o
o
o
o
m
m
m
!
Flap, Flap, Flap . . .
Vroooooommmmm!
Right at that instant, I heard a strange
noise over my head.
I looked up and screamed.
A pink helicopter was circling above me.
Pink
sugar-coated almonds rained down
all around me.
Pink
invitations with the bride’s and
groom’s names on them flew through the
air.
A bunch of thorny pink roses hit me in
the snout. Youch!
So this was my sister’s surprise. I was
97
relieved. I’d take a thorn in
the snout over that awful pink
carpeting any day.
I told everyone who the nutty