Margery Mouse looked at the tidy room. She had spent all morning cleaning and now her house was spotless.
“Well that’s done” she said. “What shall I do now?”
“I know, I’ll go and visit my friend Charlie.”
And with that she stepped out into the beautiful summers day.
The path to Charlie’s house ran down past the old mill pond where the frogs croaked happily and dragon flies buzzed in lazy circles. Margery called out Hello to the frogs as she walked past. They went Ribbitt and waved to her.
Margery liked the frogs. They were always nice and friendly to her.
The path continued on up the old hill, past the huge oak trees where the birds nested. Margery didn’t call out to them. Some of them were nice, but some of them teased her for being so small, and she didn’t like that. So she scampered quietly past their homes and out onto the top of the hill.
Charlie’s house was on the far side of the hill, facing the great meadow. So Margery walked along the path in the sun singing a happy little tune to herself.
The sun is shining,
And the birds are singing,
The bees are buzzing,
And the frogs are croaking.
My chores are all done,
And it's time for fun,
So I'll sing this merry song,
And clap my hands as I walk along.
Tra la la,
La la la laa,
Dum de dee,
Dum de dee da dum.
I found a hill I like to climb,
And I have friends all the time,
It doesn’t matter if the wind is blowing,
'cause it's off to Charlie's house I'm going.
She eventually came to Charlie’s house and knocked on the door. Charlie’s mum opened it and said, “Hello Margery how are you?”
“I’m fine Mrs. Rabbit” she replied. “How are you and your family?”
Mrs. Rabbit laughed. “We are all fine Margery. Thank you for asking. Charlie is out the back if you want to see him. But he has to finish his chores before he can go out to play.”
“Thank you Mrs. Rabbit” said Margery.
She went around to the back and found Charlie taking laundry down off the line.
“Hello Charlie” she said.
“Oh hello Margery” said Charlie.
“I’ve come to see if you want to go exploring with me,” said Margery.
“Oh yes, I always like to go exploring with you,” replied Charlie. “But I have to finish my chores first.”
“What do you have to do?” asked Margery.
“I have to bring in all the laundry,” said Charlie. “All of our clothes and things got damp when it rained the other day, so my mum washed everything and put it on the line. There is just so much laundry to bring in, it will take me forever to do it. Maybe you should go exploring without me.”
“Nonsense” said Margery with a smile. “Exploring is no fun by yourself. I will help you bring the laundry in. that way it will only take half the time.”
“But these are my chores,” said Charlie. “You have already done your own chores, you don’t have to help me with mine.”
Margery smiled. “I know, but we are friends, and friends help each other out. You helped me last week with that rock that was too big for me to move. Now its my turn to help you.”
Charlie smiled then too.
“Ok, you start at that end and I’ll keep on from this end and we’ll meet in the middle.”
So they worked together to bring in the laundry. There was a lot of it and by the time they met each other in the middle the laundry basket was pilled higher than Charlie’s ears.
Just as they finished Charlie’s mother came out the back door and said, “Well done you two. You finished that job really quickly. Now run along and play while it is still a nice day. But be back in time for supper.”
Old Mrs. Rabbit smiled as the pair ran off shouting ‘thank you’ over their shoulders. Then she picked up the laundry basket and took her laundry indoors.
Charlie and Margery ran down the hill, past Charlie’s ‘thinking rock’ and out into the meadow.
They ran all the way to the stream that ran through the meadow and flopped down on the bank. They giggled and threw dandelions at each other until Margery spotted something in the stream.
Carefully they walked down to the edge of the water to see what was trapped in the reeds.
“Oh, it’s a little raft” exclaimed Margery. “Waiting just for us.” Her little button eyes shone as she turned to Charlie and said, “Lets try it out.”
[image source]
Charlie looked at the raft. It looked like a good raft, a nice safe raft. “Ok lets,” he said.
They climbed onto the raft carefully as it was quite tippy. There was a pole for pushing it along and another pole for steering.
“You steer Margery and I’ll push,” suggested Charlie.
Margery grabbed the steering pole and Charlie grabbed the pushing pole. He pushed the raft away from the reeds and out into the stream. It floated gently along, bobbing in the current.
The two friends smiled and sang a happy song as they drifted along down the stream.
“Wouldn’t it be neat if there were pirates to battle,” said Margery.
“Oh yes,” agreed Charlie. “We could hunt for buried treasure and everything.”
Just then a noise on the bank made them look up. A water rat stood there looking at them and waving.
“Look, it’s Thomas” said Charlie.
“If you want pirates,” shouted Thomas. “We’ll be your pirates!”
His brothers appeared beside him and with a shout they all jumped into the water and began swimming towards the raft.
Margery and Charlie laughed and tried to steer their raft away from the pirates, but the water rats were too good at swimming and soon caught them up.
Charlie pushed Thomas back off the raft as he climbed on, and he splashed back into the stream laughing. But his brothers managed to get onto the raft and they tipped Charlie into the water. He came up spluttering and laughing too. Then he swam to try and rescue Margery who was running around the raft trying not to get tipped in. But the water rats cornered her and threw her into the stream. She landed with a small splash and came up paddling, determined to win her raft back from the water rats.
They battled on for a while with everybody being thrown into the stream at some point. Then they pulled the raft to the bank and they climbed up and sat in the sun. It didn’t take long for the sun to dry them off and as it began to sink behind the forest at the far side of the meadow, the two friends said goodbye to Thomas and his brothers and headed back to Charlie’s house.
“I’m so glad you helped me today Margery” said Charlie. “If you hadn’t, we would never have found the raft and had so much fun. Thank you.”
Margery smiled back at him. “That’s ok” she said. “Friends help friends, and you are the best friend in the world. Especially when you tipped old Thomas into the water.”
They both laughed as they ran home to Charlie's house for supper.
I hoped you like this installment of the adventures of Charlie Rabbit and Margery Mouse.
If you would like a story written for your kids, I'm happy to come up with one. Check out a story I wrote for @pappa-pepper and his kids.
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