Friends

Friends

Written and illustrated by Helme Heine

Every morning, when Charlie Rooster strutted into the barn to wake the other animals.

Johnny Mouse and fat Percy went with him to help.

Good friends always help each other.

Then, they wheeled their bicycle out,

Set off for their morning ride.

They could ride down the roughest paths and up the steepest cliffs.

No curve was too sharp, no puddle was too deep to stop them.

One day, they played hide-and-seek by the village pond.

When Jonny Mouse was hiding, he discovered an old boat lying in the tall grass.

He showed his friends, and they decided to play pirates.

Good friends always decide things together.

Jonny Mouse took the tiller,

Charlie Rooster opened his wings to make the sail,

Fat Percy plugged up the hole in the side of the boat by sitting on it.

They sailed out on the open water,

As the day went on, they felt very brave and bold.

They conquered the village pond.

But hunger finally sent them back to the shore.

First they tried to catch a fish.

But their stomachs rumbled so loudly, and they frightened all the fish away.

Then they went looking for cherries.

They shared them.

Some for Jonny Mouse, some for Charlie Rooster,

and twice as many for Percy.

Jonny Mouse didn’t mind, but Charlie Rooster said it was unfair.

So they gave him the cherry stones.

Friends are always fair.

They ate so many cherries and they all got stomachaches,

As evening fell and the shadows grew longer,

They bicycled home.

Behind the henhouse, near the water barrel,

They swore to be friends forever.

Good friends always stick together.

They decided to spend the night in Jonny Mouse’s house.

But Charlie Rooster got stuck in the doorway.

Then fat Percy invited them to spend the night with him.

But Jonny Mouse’s nose is allergic in the pigsty.

Finally, Charlie Rooster suggested sleeping in the henhouse, they tried to rest on a perch,

but it broke.

So, they said good night to each other and went to their own beds.

“Sometimes good friends can’t be together.” They said.

But that night they dreamed about each other the way true friends do.

【注：音频故事较原文有所改编】