|
Mr. and
Mrs. Possum lived in a tall tree with their children Polly, Paula and
Percy. They were a happy family and did a lot of fun things together. Each
night they slept hanging by their tails. That's the way possums do things.
Mr. and Mrs. Possum slept in the highest branches and their three children
slept on the lower ones.
One
morning after Mr. and Mrs. Possum woke up they couldn't find Percy, the
baby. Paula and Polly were still asleep, hanging on a branch.
“Where's
Percy?” Mrs. Possum woke Polly and Paula up. “Have you girls seen Percy
this morning?”
“No,
Mama,” said Polly.
“No,
Mama,” yawned Paula.
They
climbed down from the tree and went in search of little Percy. He wasn't
in the woods. He wasn't down by the lake. The possums were about to give
up when Polly saw something. “Mama, what's that?”
Mrs.
Possum looked at the beehive hanging from a branch of a birch tree. Inside
and covered with honey sat Percy. He was busy scooping handfuls of honey
into his mouth. Bees swarmed around him, buzzing in anger.
“Percy!
You come down from there right now!” Mr. Possum called to his son.
Percy
climbed down the tree. His paws were stick and his fur was a mess. Mr.
Possum took Percy to the lake and made him wash off all the honey. Percy
shivered and cried. “I want to go home.”
From then
on Mr. and Mrs. Possum made Percy sleep in the high branches with them. |
