Short stories for girls

After their unexpected meeting with and their failure to catch Sandy the mouse, Rosie, Chloe and Beth headed for the slide and swings that granddad had built. They were chattering excitedly.

Rosie giggled and said, ‘Yes and it was really funny when you did those two rolls.’

‘Did you see me catch him by the tail?’ asked Beth, ‘but he was going so fast that his tail slide right through my fingers.’

‘Last one up the slide is a slow coach,’ cried Rosie as she raced towards the play area.

This time it was Beth who was the slowest, but she wasn’t bothered. While others climbed the slide she bagged first go on one of the swings.

They were having a great time alternating between the swings and the slide. When Rosie, as she was about go down the slide for tenth time, suddenly stood still and called out, ‘Quiet! Listen, I can hear something.’

Rosie shot down the slide, jumped to her feet and said, ‘If you both stop talking you’ll hear it.’

This time all three of them heard a muffled meow that sounded very sorry for its self.

Chloe and Beth frowned at the thought of any animal being hurt and hurried after Rosie. Following the sound of distress they crossed the lawn and turned onto the path through the vegetable garden. Though still muffled the cries were louder here and seemed to be coming from the rows of beans. They traced the sound to an area in the second row where some posts supporting the netting had collapsed and found the source of the pitiful meows. A large striped cat had somehow managed to become so deeply enmeshed in the bean netting that it was difficult to tell where the netting ended and the cat began.

‘This must be Marmalade, the cat grandma was telling us about,’ Rosie exclaimed.

Rosie and Chloe dropped down beside Marmalade and Chloe talked softly to him, Rosie tried to free the netting. She did manage to unwrap a small amount but no way would she be able to free the cat.

‘We need help there’s no way to untangle this mess,’ said Rosie, ‘we better get granddad.’

Beth nodded and increasing speed raced to the house, burst through the door and shouted, ‘Come quick Marmalade is trapped, Rosie said to bring scissors and a knife.’

Grabbing the Scissors and a knife, Granddad hurried with Beth back to the garden and immediately took things in hand.

‘Chloe go around the other side and hold Marmalade still. Rosie get hold of the netting here and pull it tight. Beth you do the same at the other side.’

A couple of snips at one side then a couple at the other and he was left with a tangled ball of netting with a cat inside. Unravelling the netting a bit at a time and making a snip here and there, it wasn’t long before the cat was free. Marmalade must have exhausted himself struggling with the net because he just lay there. Granddad picked him up and handed him to Beth and said, ‘You hold him.’

The girls made a big fuss of Marmalade and like a drama queen he preened and lapped up the attention.

Granddad left them to it, while he picked up the broken poles and torn netting and then said, ‘Why don’t you take Marmalade to the house, while I get rid of this stuff.’

‘There, there, your safe now boy,’ said Beth as she carried Marmalade towards the house.

‘How did you manage to get yourself all tangled up, you silly cat?’ Beth asked Marmalade.

‘He must have been chasing a bird or something to run into that net,’ said Chloe.

‘You don’t suppose,’ queried Rosie, ‘that he could have been chasing Sandy the mouse?’

Katie, Kraw And The Princess

Katie whooped with joy and tightened her grip on the harness as Kraw streaked skywards. Up, up they sped, bursting through the clouds and up into the blue sun filled sky beyond. Kraw climbed higher and higher until looking down there was no sign of the earth below. Just an unbroken carpet of cloud that looked like she imagined the snow covered north to be. Then she whooped again as Kraw did a double loop the loop and then corkscrewed back down through the clouds again.

Katie was nine and a half years old and lived in the orphanage run by Mrs Tolley. Kraw was a three metre high dragon from the mountains of the moon that had sort of adopted Katie on the day of her ninth birthday.

As they burst through the bottom of the clouds, Kraw turned his head and said in his deep rumbling voice, ‘See I told you my navigational skills were excellent, we’re spot on course.’

Katie hated to admit it – Kraw could get such big head at times – but he was right they had come out of the clouds directly over the road. ‘OK, OK, I agree you’re the worlds greatest navigator. But don’t you think you should look where you’re going before crash into that tree?’

Kraw gave loud squawk and turned to look forward again. ‘Ha! Ha! Very funny we’re at least a hundred metres above the trees.’

‘Not those trees down there, idiot, the one in front of you, on top of the hill.’

If anything Kraw’s squawk was louder this time and Katie hung on as he jinked to the left to avoid the collision. ‘Phew! That was close,’ he gasped. ‘Now, where were we?’

Princess Mariva was meant to have opened the new school, next to the orphanage at ten o’clock that morning and when she hadn’t turned up by eleven, the mayor got himself into a panic. He ran around wringing his hands and crying, ‘Oh dear, oh dear, where has she got too, I hope she isn’t lost.’

‘Calm down Mr Mayor, I’ll call out a search party,’ said the Sheriff. ‘In the meanwhile, Katie, could you and Kraw go out and see if you can spot her.’

And so here they were. ‘Oh, yeah,’ said Kraw. ‘We’d better move on then, there’s no sign of her here.’

Kraw had a habit of stating the obvious, but he was right, the road beneath them was empty and they would have to search further along the road. ‘Let’s go then,’ she said.

Half an hour later they had searched the road as far as Dobbs End and when they’d questioned the town guard, he told them that the princess and her escort had passed through there two hours before. Well, thought Katie as they doubled back – this time flying lower and slower – at least we know that the princess got this far.

‘Whoa, Kraw, bring us down over there,’ Katie said pointing to the forest on their right. ‘I’ve just glimpsed something shining amongst those trees.’

Kraw landed and they pushed through the trees, at least Kraw pushed through the trees, Katie being smaller slipped between them easily. They didn’t have to go far before finding the shining object. It was a jewelled dagger lying in the grass and beyond the dagger they found princess’s bodyguards, all four of them gagged and tied to a tree. In a slash of a dragon’s claw they were freed and after spitting out his gag, Sir Dwain, the knight in charge, told them what happened.

‘As you know we were escorting princess Marina,’ said Sir Dwain. All was going well until we heard cries for help coming from amongst the trees. I wanted to hurry the princess away to safety, but she insisted that we leave her on the road and go to help whoever was in trouble. Unfortunately we walked straight into an ambush. A net dropped down from the trees, we were clubbed on the heads and when we came too we were bound to that tree.’

‘I don’t know, Mistress, but the men who attacked us wore the uniform of soldiers belonging to the Black Knight, so he must have taken her for ransom.’

‘He lives to the east, Mistress far beyond the forest, if you hurry you should catch him before he reaches his castle.’

‘Ok, wait at the roadside and tell the sheriff where we’ve gone,’ said Katie as she and Kraw took to the air.

It took an hour of steady flying to leave the forest behind and another half an hour before they spotted the group of horsemen in the distance. ‘Up Kraw,’ cried Katie. ‘Get as high as you can so that they don’t see us coming.’

With great powerful beats of his wings Kraw obeyed and within minute they were looking down on the horsemen below. There were seven of them six men at arms and one man in armour, ‘That must be the Black Knight,’ said Katie. ‘And that’s the princess on the horse behind him.’

‘Hang on tight Katie, I’ll soon sort this lot out,’ cried Kraw and he folded his wings and dived towards the figures on the ground. He dropped like a stone in silence, at the last minute opened his wings, plucked the Black Knight from his horse and dropped him on top of his men. Next he lifted the princess onto his back next to Katie and set off for home.

The sheriff captured the Black Knight and his men, whose horses had bolted, leaving them on foot. The princess opened the new school. Katie and Kraw were invited to a party given in their honour at the palace and were presented with medals by the king.

A Bad Day For Marmalade

Sandy the mouse was fed up. All afternoon he had been dodging here and there trying to shake off Marmalade the cat. It seemed as if everywhere he went he would catch glimpses of those orange and black stripes from the corner of his eye. The cat had stalked him through the flowerbeds in the borders, through the vegetable garden and now he was creeping after him through the woods. Sandy was not so much worried about the cat catching him. The cat had tried three times already this morning and he had evaded him easily.

No he was fed up because he was hungry, but he couldn’t stop to eat or the cat would pounce while he was eating. It was a situation that couldn’t go on or he would be liable to faint with hunger and where would he be then? At dinner with the cat, only he wouldn’t be eating, he would be on the menu. He needed a plan to get rid of the pesky cat. Maybe he could…no, wouldn’t work. What about if he…No good, the cat would spot it was a trap. I know, the clearing by the stream that should do the trick. Zigzagging around trees and bushes to avoid Marmalade he hurried to the clearing. Once there he moved to the very edge of the bank above the stream and sat down to wash his whiskers.

Marmalade was frustrated and angry. For the past hour he had been tracking Sandy the mouse, but every time he got ready to pounce Sandy would suddenly disappear and pop up in another location. It was almost as if the mouse knew that he was being stalked. He crossed from the garden into the trees hot in pursuit of Sandy and lost him almost straight away. He sniffed the air, he could smell the little beast and it was a distinctive smell. A smell that reminded him of something…what was it? Ah yes, that was it, the smell of freshly caught dinner.

With a grin like the cat in Alice in wonderland he dipped his head to the ground bloodhound fashion and set off after his prey. As he zigzagged between the trees the tantalising scent of mouse grew stronger. He lifted his head and the Cheshire cat grin widened to reach his ears, beyond the last of the trees he could see a clearing and at the far side sat the mouse. The little beast was sitting out in the open, without a care in the world, cleaning his whiskers. Well, he wouldn’t be cleaning them long he thought, as he dropped down onto his belly and began to squirm silently towards Sandy. Closer and closer he slid, until he reached the edge of the trees and could go no further without the mouse seeing him.

With a click he extended his razor sharp claws gathered himself up and sprang. Up, up, up he soared over the clearing, oh he loved this part, and down he came. The mouse had disappeared and too late he realised he had been fooled. Hitting the edge of the overhanging bank, he screeched as it collapsed and sent him cart-wheeling through the air, to land with a splat, right in the middle of the stream. Ooh! He hated water it was soo, soo, wet. After thrashing about for a while, he dragged himself out of the water onto the opposite bank and slunk away to find a place where the sun would dry him out.

As Marmalade flew through the air towards him Sandy stopped pretending to clean his whiskers and ran. He didn’t look back, not even when he heard the screech followed by a splash, he just ran. Quick as a flash he sped along the bank, across the bridge and into the stables. At this time of the day the horses and the donkey were out in the fields and he could fill his belly full of crushed oats and then snuggle down in the straw for a nice sleep.

Part Two

While on a visit to Thompson’s farm, Rosie, Joe and Victoria hear strange noises coming from inside the red barn. They follow the sound to the back of the barn and find small door hidden behind some bushes. Despite being warned not to go inside, they do so when they hear someone cry out, and are amazed to find themselves not in a barn, but standing on a road outside a railway station. Sprawled in the bushes at the side of the station steps is the owner of the voice that cried out. He introduces himself as Tom and ushers them aboard the Adventure Express. The train takes them to a place called Lower Market where they ask two girls in the market square why everyone is staring at them. One of the girls is about to answer, when there is a commotion as Captain Blackbone and is men invade the town.

With the thunder of hooves and the shouts of the men in their ears, they followed as the girl led them across the square, through a gap in the stalls, down a lane and into a maze of narrow streets. Two minutes later the girl led them into a small cottage and closed the door. After listening for the sound of pursuit and finding none, they sat down to get their breath back. The taller of the two girls recovered first, smiled and said, ‘Looks like we’ve lost them. I’m Chloe by the way and the shrimp here, is my sister Beth.’

Rosie grinned at the face pulling and said, ‘I’m Rosie, this is Victoria and the…’

‘I’d better tell you what’s been going on,’ said Chloe, ‘A few months ago, the pirate’s came storming into the village. It was a market day just like today. They rounded up all of the men and boys. Some of the men did try to fight back, but they didn’t stand a chance against the guns wielded by the pirates. They were rounded up like cattle and marched away.’

This just gets weirder and weirder, thought Rosie, first we find a train station in a barn, and then Joe and Tom seem to have been captured by pirates. Now Chloe is talking about a treasure ship and a gold mine, whatever next? ‘The pirates have a gold mine?’

‘Yes, All of the men and some of the boys have been put to work in the mine. The rest of the boys are on the ship. The pirates have a fortress on an island off the coast and they need to train the boys in ship handling so that they can ferry out the gold and return with the ship.’

‘Why don’t they just fill the ship with gold and sail away using the ships crew.’

Again it was Beth who answered, ‘The one at the end of the market, but it is guarded and you’d never get through.’

‘I’m sure we can,’ said Chloe, ‘Beth bring your slate and chalk over here.’

The two of them sat at the table, Chloe giving directions, Beth drawing on the slate. When they had finished Chloe explained it to Rosie and Victoria. ‘We are here at the village, there is the harbour for the fishing boats and this is the cove where the pirate ship is anchored. It’s about a mile along the coast and this river runs past the mine down to the cove. The pirates use the river to transfer the gold to the ship.

As Joe and Tom ran across the square behind the girls, Captain Blackbone and a group of mounted pirates cut them off from the others. Unable to get past the horsemen the boys split, Joe in one direction and Tom in another. Tom raced back across the square hoping to hide behind the stalls on the other side. Unfortunately he slipped on some rotten fruit, crashed heavily to the ground and was winded. He managed to struggle to his feet, but before could gain his breath; a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him into the air. He kicked screamed and twisted trying to break free, but he was grabbed from behind, his hands were tied and he was thrown over the neck of a horse.

Meanwhile, Tom was heading towards some barrels at the end of the market, his idea was to jump in one of the barrels to hide. But before he could do that, he had to give the horsemen the slip. Veering to the right he rolled under a stall and popped up running at the other side. It wasn’t long however, before the horsemen found a way though and were on his tail once more. Diving back under a stall he ran across to the barrels and took a headfirst flying leap into one. Unfortunately it was half full of rotten apples and as his arms and head sank into the mush, his legs were left kicking wildly in the air. He wasn’t there long before his legs were grabbed; he was lifted into the air and carried upside down between two horses then dumped unceremoniously in the middle of the square. Before he had even managed to clear the mush from his face, he too was bound and thrown over a horse, then together with Joe he was taken to the mine.

When they arrived both boys were pulled from the horses and two of the guards marched them into the mineshaft. It ran straight into the hillside and was illuminated by burning torches fixed to the wall at intervals. Also at intervals ventilation shafts pierced the roof. As he was frog marched along Joe took note of everything he passed. Just inside the entrance on the right there was large cavern and from the number of men sitting around drinking he reckoned it had to be the pirate quarters. Further along in a smaller cave two of the pirates guarded what must have been the keys to prisoners’ cells. After passing several small side tunnels they came another cavern. A barred door with a great padlock however closed this one off and Joe was half expecting they would be thrown inside.

Instead they were pushed roughly on until they reached the end of the shaft, which opened out into a huge cavern. Here all of the prisoners were at work digging out the gold and loading it into barrows. At least twelve pirates with guns were guarding the miners. The ropes tying their hands were cut and they were each given a spade. But after Tom managed to drop his on one of the guards’ feet and was clouted around the head for his clumsiness, they were set to work pushing the barrows laden with the gold ore. After a long hard day they were given rough bread and some warm brackish water, then herded with the rest of the prisoners into the

cavern with the barred door.

Shortly after Chloe arrived back with she friend Laura, a small cheerful girl with dark hair tied in bunches. Chloe had hardly finished introducing friend, when the door opened and a voice said, ‘hello, what’s going on here?’

Rosie turned and saw a fair-haired girl a few years older that herself. Chloe introduced the girl as her cousin Karen. Then she explained to Karen that Rosie and Victoria were strangers and that the pirates had captured their friends, Joe and Tom.

Rosie spoke before Karen had the chance to comment, ‘We are going rescue the boys and free the others if we can and I’ve worked out a plan I think will work. Will you help us, please.’

When they had all found somewhere to sit, Rosie explained her plan from beginning to end and they all agreed that it just might work. Rosie heaved a sigh of relief, thank goodness; I must have got it right if the others agree. She outlined the plan once more and then they put it into action.

Karen left to rally the women of the village, half of them were to gather as many carts as they could and then make their way to the pirate ship. The rest to prepare lots of food to feed the men freed from the mine. Led by Chloe the five girls made their way down to the harbour, borrowed a boat, loaded a couple of fishing nets and set off to row along the coast to the pirate ship.

It was just getting dark as they slid quietly alongside the ship. A rope ladder hung down the side, Rosie climbed up and peered over the side. There were only two guards and they sat talking near the stern. Giving the signal she slipped over the side onto the deck. While she kept watch, Chloe and Victoria brought up one of the nets. Climbing quietly up into the rigging they spread the net out and waited.

They didn’t have to wait long. Down below Beth and Laura had pushed off from the side and then rowed the boat with a thump into the side of the ship. Alerted by the noise the guards jumped up, raced for the ladder, only to become entangled, as the net was dropped on them from above. Quick as a flash, Beth and Laura climbed the ladder, grabbed the end of the net and by running around in circles had the pirates wrapped so tight that they couldn’t move.

They found the key almost immediately. It was attached to one of the men’s belts and bound with him into the net, but with a bit of jiggling the manage to slide it free. Now all they had to do was find the boys. As it turned out the task was an easy one, they all shouted, the boys answered, they opened the door and were practically hugged to death, as the boys thanked them for being set free. In the middle of all this the women arrived with the carts. It took a little while for the boys to settle down and then the girls organised teams to launch the rest of the ships boats. The bulk of the boys then began ferrying the gold ashore and loading it onto the waiting carts. Meanwhile, the girls accompanied by ten of the boys, loaded one of the ships boatswith rope and then began to row it, plus the boat containing the second net, upriver towards the mine.

As they neared the mine Rosie signalled for silence and they crept slowly forward until the jetty that the pirates used to load the gold came into sight. There were no guards to be seen and giving as sigh of relief she signalled the boats alongside. While the other unloaded the boats, Rosie Chloe and Victoria, crawled up the bank and stuck their heads over the top.

The mine was no more than fifty metres away and two guards stood by the entrance. Quickly they slid back down and again signalling for silence, Rosie led them further along the bank, where out sight of the guards they climbed the hill. At the top they split into five teams of three and each team moved through the trees that covered the top in search of a ventilation shaft. Once these were found, ropes were tied to a nearby tree and they slid down into the mine. One of the teams carried the net, while the others carried some of the spare ropes.

Reaching the bottom Rosie looked around, she could tell by the noise that was coming from a cavern near the entrance that it was where most of pirates were. But if her plan was to succeed she needed more information and the only way to get that, was to find Joe, Tom, and the other prisoners. She gathered the groups together and whispered,

Unable to sleep despite the hard work Joe wandered over to the door, looked out into the shadowy darkness beyond the bars and was surprised to see the smaller of the two girls from the market. He was about to speak, but she held a finger to her lips and shook her head, before turning to beckon to someone else further down the tunnel. Within seconds, to his amazement, Rosie, Victoria, the other girl from the market, plus another girl and a bunch of boys appeared. Rosie put her head close to the bars and whispered, ‘Where do they keep the keys?’

Now that Rosie knew where the pirates and the keys were, they could get on with the rescue, ‘Gather around, this is what we will do,’ she said, and proceeded to outline the final part of the plan.

Firstly they tied one of the ropes to as support post then ran the rope across into one of the side tunnels on the opposite side. Taking another rope they did the same at the entrance to the cavern. Just beyond this rope they spread the net on the ground, tied ropes to the corners and fed them over one of the support beams that crisscrossed the roof. With the boys holding the ropes ready to haul on them, the girls headed back along the tunnel, putting out some of the torches as they went.

Five minutes later the torch outside of the small cave went out and when the guards came out to investigate, they caught sight of Beth and Laura sneaking down the tunnel. As soon as they saw the guards, the girls ran and the guards ran after them. In the side tunnel Rosie, Victoria and Chloe waited until the girls ran past and then hauled on the rope. One minute the guards were racing after the girls and the next, the rope took their legs from under them and they crashed heavily to the ground. While they lay stunned, the three girls emerged and tied their hands and feet together and collected the keys from the cave.

After releasing the prisoners and motioning them to be quiet Rosie led them to the big Cavern. They hadn’t quite reached it before one of the guards recovered, began to yell and the rest of the pirates came boiling out of their quarters. Racing into the cavern the prisoners split up, some carried on inside, while some manned the trip rope and still other joined the boys at the net. The pirates arrived in seconds and everything worked like a dream. The rope came up; the pirates ploughed into it, flew through air, landed in the net and were hauled up to dangle from the beam.

Unfortunately some of the pirates including Captain Blackbones escaped the net and ran back down the tunnel. A gang of prisoners went after them but by the time they reached the mine entrance they had already ridden off on the horses. After ensuring that the prisoners were secure Rosie and the girls didn’t reach the entrance until later. By then all they could do was to climb the hill and watch as the pirates, having upped anchor, sailed away. ‘Well a least they didn’t get away with the gold,’ said Rosie and they headed back to the village.

What a surprise when they got there, Karen and the women had cooked a great feast to celebrate the rescue of the prisoners. And who were the guests of honour? That’s right, Rosie, Victoria, Joe, Tom, Chloe, Beth and Laura. They were cheered and carried round the square on the men shoulders, the village leader made a speech saying how brave they were, then they all sat down to a brilliant feast.

The next morning the three friends and Tom who was by now a friend too, set off up the hill to the station with the whole village tagging along. At the top of the hill they hugged Chloe and Beth, Laura and Karen and said goodbye. The village leader thanked them once again and presenting them each with a gold nugget, said, ‘A small present to remember us by.’

With a lot of good wishes from the whole village, they stepped through the Red door and miraculously found themselves dressed in their normal clothes. Once more they boarded the Train. Then with Joe hanging onto his coattails Tom leaned over the side, blew his whistle, waved his flag and with a great puff of steam they clanked off up the track. It wasn’t long before they arrived at Home Station and as the left the train, Tom looked at his watch and said, ‘Good we’re back on time.’

Tom laughed, ‘ No you’re not. No matter how long you are on an adventure, you always arrive back on the day you left. It’s now 4.30 and it’s still Saturday. So off you go home and remember, the train and I will be here, next time you feel like another adventure.’

At eight o clock Gran quietly got out of bed so as to not to disturb Rosie and quietly went downstairs to have a cup of coffee in peace before everyone else woke up. Later on Grandad got up, looked into the bedroom and saw Rosie was still asleep so he tip toed downstairs to join Gran for a coffee.

The three friends headed out of the village, crossed the wooden bridge over the stream and turned left onto cow lane. At the top of the hill they slipped through the farm gate, making sure they closed it behind them and on reaching the farmhouse, knocked on the kitchen door.

‘Hello Kids,’ said Mrs Thomson when she opened the door, your Grandad said you were coming today. Mr Thomson has taken some cows to the auction and I’m in the middle of baking bread. But if you promise not to go into the red barn where the machinery is you can explore the farmyard by yourselves.’

After making a fuss of Bob the farms black and white collie, they went to see Dolly the pig. Last time Rosie had been to the farm with her granddad, Dolly had just given birth to ten little piglets and she was amazed at how big they had grown. The farmhand, Charlie had just filled their feeding trough, and it was hilarious to watch them pushing, shoving, and climbing over each other to get to the food. After watching the piglets for a while the wandered over to the goat pen and Rosie pulled a handful of grass and showed the others how to feed it to the goats without getting their fingers nipped.

Mrs Thompson had a few hens that were allowed to peck about in the farmyard and Charlie gave them a handful of corn each to scatter on the ground. He said it was best if the hens had to peck for their food, because that way they picked up grit and grit helped to strengthen the shells on the eggs that the hens laid.

Leaving the hens pecking away, Rosie led her friends to the stables, to see the horses. The top halves of the stable doors were open and the three horses had their heads out. Rosie made friends with a black and white stallion called Bruno, while Joe headed straight for Star a palomino mare with white star shaped patch on her forehead and Victoria fell in love with Beauty who was gleaming black with white socks.

Afterwards they sat on the bales of straw and shared out the food, three ham sandwiches, three packet of cheesy Wotsits and three jam doughnuts washed down with lemonade. Lunch over they lay back against the bales, resting in the warm of the sun. Suddenly Rosie sat up, ‘Did you hear that?’ she asked.

They walked over and put their ears to the wooden doors and could hear a hissing and what they thought was a voice, although they could not make out what was being said. Then Joe found a knothole in the door and they took turns peering through, but all they could see were some tractors and other farming equipment.

‘Lets go round this side, there’s a path that leads to the back’ said Joe.

As the neared the back of the barn, the voice became louder and they began to make out the words. ‘Oh dear…Where are they? Oh bother…Just look at the time… I do hope they get here soon.’ And all the time in the background they could hear the strange hissing sound. Reaching the end of the barn they turned the corner fully expecting to find the owner of the voice. But there was no one there and the back of the barn was hidden behind a mass of overgrown bushes.

Pulling back the branches they found a small door in the rear wall of the barn. Victoria wanted to barge straight in but Rosie and Joe remembered Mrs Thompson’s warning, ‘Best not,’ said Joe

Rosie agreed with Joe, but Victoria still wanted to go in, they began to argue and were in the middle of the argument, when from inside the barn they heard, ‘Oh dear’ followed by Arggg! Followed by a thump and an Owww! It sounded as if someone had fallen so Rosie broke off the argument and said, ‘You win Victoria, let’s go.’

What is the longest word in the world?

Smiles, Because there is a mile between the beginning and the end.

All Of A Tangle

This story is a follow up to ‘The Girls And Sandy’ and ‘Sandy And The Beast’ and tells what happened to Marmalade after his run in with Sandy in the vegetable garden.

Katie, Kraw And The Princess

A Bad Day For Marmalade

Part Two