Чудо-веточка - [4]

However, Johnny tried to get his way, "The flute can be used in any place - at home, in the street, and even in the forest."

Ham sat in Papa's boot, heard everything, and thought, if a person doesn't like playing the piano, why make him do it? Let him play the flute if he enjoys it. It may be much better.

The small beast thought during the night and decided to somehow express his thoughts to Mama. But how would he do it?

Ham did it like a hamster could. It was so...

A fine sunny morning had set in. Mama drank coffee in the kitchen and read the big newspaper very attentively. The small creature emerged secretly onto the table and slipped quickly between the pages so that he was invisible.

At that moment, Mama heard a rustle of the paper. She raised her head and, with what she suddenly saw, threw down the paper with terror. The newspaper pages were billowing and moving to and fro like a sea surf. Mama almost dropped her cup. She looked with wide open eyes and cried,

"Gracious me! What is happening? Look everybody, the page is moving by itself!!! This is really magic!" Mama stammered as she turned pale and held her heart with her hand.

But, in the next moment, she noticed a small tail swinging cheerily from behind the remote edge of the page, and she smiled brightly. Johnny and Papa smiled, too.

It's difficult to say whether the small beast was able to thus tell his trouble about Johnny. Anyway, Ham liked the following conversation that he heard. This happened after everybody calmed down, and Johnny asked his parents,

"Please, have pity on him. He is too bored. Let's buy a squirrel wheel for our hamster!"

"What's that?" Papa asked.

"It's a wheel the pet runs inside of and turns, but stays in once place."

"OK, I agree to look for such a wonder," said Mama. Johnny had a kindly mother!

Thus, the wheel was bought and put by the window. What an unexpected surprise for the whole family when the small, clever beast suspiciously approached the unknown thing, touched the wheel with his sharp nose, and suddenly stood stock-still looking at how it began to turn. But the real wonder came later. The hamster himself climbed up the wheel rungs and, with a gaze of amazement, quickly rushed to attempt to reach the peak. However, it was in vain. Ham was running, nevertheless, staying at almost the same place. The hard toiler was panting, puffing, and snorting very loudly,

"Puff-piff, puff-ffrr!" and he moved so quickly that the wheel was invisible.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The hamster that had been running since early in the morning had not had one break. He was very tired and his strength had run out. But small Ham did not give in. He tried to keep his spirits up in such a song,

"Oh, stairs up, oh, stairs up, oh how they're a lot,

My feet escape, my feet escape, and heart beats hard,

Not so lightly, not so lightly rotates the hugest wheel,

If I could reach a darling peak, it would be, oh, the biggest deal!"

So, he was running and happy.

Somebody emerged and called to him.

"Hello, chap! What are you doing?"

At the sill of the opened window was running to and fro a very brisk squirrel. It would run and suddenly curdle, run and curdle. And its tail was bending like a saxophone.

"Please, don't bother me! I'm very busy!" the hamster snapped and continued puffing like a locomotive.

"Hruph-hruph-puph..."

The squirrel jumped up on the edge of the top of window and hung with his head down.

"Stupid cuss, listen to what I have to say to you."

"I...pruph-truph...don't want to listen to you!"

The catchy squirrel thought of what to do and screamed,

"Be careful!!! Stop!!! A big bee is sitting on your belly! Stop, bulky guy!"

The scared hamster stumbled over and fell down the stairs. The untwisted wheel continued to rotate, turning him with his short tail back up, then stopped. Ham could not hold himself and flew to the floor.

The squirrel sprang to him and said,

"Now listen to me. Try to keep your spirits up, ninny! Don't dream of touching the top of the wheel! It's quite impossible. Do you not believe me?"

"How do you know?"

"My grandmother told me long ago that people invented this wheel to amuse themselves. They like to see how we uselessly try to get to the top. For us it's much better to be running in the forest. If you still want to climb up high, we can do it more easily. Let's go!"

With much difficulty the squirrel urged the hamster, and, after several times, they strolled through the wonderful woods with tall, powerful green pines and oaks. Sunny glades were strewn with plenty of various colored flowers, over which soared beautiful butterflies waving their decorated wings.

The hamster was so amazed at such a striking landscape that big tears formed in his eyes.

The squirrel didn't lie to the hamster. It was really simple and easy climbing high toward the trunk of the tree. There they chose a long, flexible branch waving from the wind.

"Look what a wonderful scenery is around," the squirrel said, delighted, and continued, "There in the South early in the morning behind the mountains the sun rises. It sets on the other side in West straight over the ocean."