Dear Robynn,
One day Jelly Bean, being an adventurous rat, decided to go exploring all by herself. She had never been exploring by herself, and wasn’t quite sure how to begin. She thought, “I shall just pick a direction and keep going until I am done.”
And this is what she did. She trotted across stretches of fuzzy carpeting, over mountains of fluffy pillows, and through forests of chair legs.
After a little while, she found herself in a strange place that she had never been before.
She came accross a ledge, and when she peered over the side all she could see was darkness far below. As she peered down the edge she leaned further and further until she slipped. With a scrabble of little feet and a flapping tail, she fell in.
___________________________________________________________
The bottom was very dark.
She could barely see anything as she looked around carefully with her keen ears and sensitive whiskers for the smallest sounds and movement. She had fallen quite a ways.
She tried to jump out, but it was no use; she slid back to the bottom of the hole. She peered up and thought about how nice it would be to go back home where she had left Cricket sleeping.
___________________________________________________________
When Cricket woke up back at home she quickly realized Jelly was gone. She waited patiently, thinking that Jelly would return any moment.
When Jelly didn’t not come back for several long hours Cricket was concerned and decided to go and search for her.
___________________________________________________________
Cricket followed her keen nose in search of Jelly which took her across stretches of fuzzy carpeting, over mountains of fluffy pillows, and through forests of chair legs. Finally, Cricket came to the same edge from which Jelly had slipped and also peered over. Jelly was glad to see Cricket peering down the edge of the hole, but she was also immediately worried. “Don’t lean to far!” Jelly said, “Or you will fall in.”
Cricket quickly got some string and threw it down to Jelly.
Jelly was able to grab onto the string.
With only marginal difficulty, Cricket began to pull her up, up, up and out.
___________________________________________________________________
Cricket and Jelly retraced the path back home through the forests of chair legs, over mountains of fluffy pillows, and across stretches of fuzzy carpeting. Even after they were safe at home Cricket kept one eye on Jelly for the rest of the day to make sure did not go exploring alone again.
Jelly didn’t mind. She was done exploring for the day.
Rat Corner 