In a brief moment of bravery a small mouse makes his way through the bushes into the farm. A sow watches him with curiosity. He has been for some time watching the mouse plan his movements. A little mouse is making his way into the mud patch. The cheek of it! The mouse quickly scurries behind the post hoping that the pig hasn’t seen him. A bloody mouse. Can you believe it? Where did he go? Did he fall in the mud? Serves him right!
The mouse has been planning a breakout for the past three months, no longer contented with the view from his parents’ house. Creeping from around the post, the mouse notices the pig has turned his back. Silly pig with her face in the trough. It’s now or never. Time to see what’s over the mud patch and beyond the fence.
The mouse slowly and delicately scales up the pig’s leg. He is adept at hiding and sneaking and he’s been in training for weeks. He’s praying that the pig doesn’t notice his mouse paws climbing round her tummy onto her back. Luckily, the sow is too busy chewing to deal with the small itch that is developing on her underside and back.
The mouse takes a deep breath before opening his eyes on the summit of the curved back of pig. He sees the farmhouse and the man with hat who feeds the pigs. He sees the green and brown hills in the distance and sees a continuous blue, white and grey sheet covering the rest of his vision. Oh, to be able to see this from his house. Oh, what a sight! A privilege to see and behold.
Suddenly, the ground is shaking under the mouse’s feet. He slips and slides of the back of the pig, landing face first in the mud patch. The sow is still chewing and doesn’t realised the damage caused.
He quickly finds his bearings and dashes back home to his parents’ house in the bushes. Enough adventure for one afternoon, thinks the mouse. He’ll be contented for quite some time now.
ENDS
PHILIPPA MANNION 