CHAPTER FIVE

Back into the sea

When Sally awoke it was raining. 'What do I do now' she thought. In the past whenever it started to rain she went inside, but now she had no inside to go into and she wondered what all the animals were doing. As she wondered what to do, Fritz, the cat whom she'd had met earlier, walked passed. He was singing as usual:

When he saw Sally he stopped and said 'Hello Sally, how are you? I haven't seen you for a while' and Sally said 'I'm fine, although I wish the rain would stop. Where are you going.'. 'I'm going down to the sea, cats hate getting caught in the rain, we don't like getting wet you see, perhaps you would like to join me, you don't look very thrilled about getting wet yourself'.

'You're right' Sally said 'I don't like getting wet, but how is going down to the sea going to help, won't it be raining there as well?' 'Oh yes, it will' Fritz said casually 'but you can't get wet if you're in the sea, because if you're in the sea you're already wet. You can't get wet if you're already wet, can you? You can only get dry'. 'Well' Sally said 'you could get wetter' but Fritz argued 'wet is not something that you can get more of, you're either wet or you're not, it's like a bottle being full, if it's full, it can't get any fuller because it would overflow, and if it's empty, it's empty, it can't get emptier even if you turned it inside out'.

Sally couldn't quite see the logic of what Fritz was saying, but she remembered him being a little eccentric the last time they had met, which seemed such a long time ago now. But as she had nothing else to do, she went along with him and as they walked through the wood they came across Milt. He was laughing and dancing around and Sally was delighted that he was so happy and she said 'Hello Milt, it is so nice to see you happy again, did you find your mother?' and Milt replied cheerfully 'yes, I did, here she comes now'. Sally turned to look in the direction that Milt was indicating and was amazed to see a rabbit hopping towards her.

'You're Milt's mother?' she asked unable to contain her surprise, and the rabbit, seeing the astonishment on Sally's face drew her aside and said 'I'm not really his mother, but I only have eighteen children of my own and I felt rather sorry for him, he was so lonely and miserable, so I told him that I was his mother and it made him happy again. It is quite handy having him around sometimes, he is tall enough to see things long before I see them and he has helped me out on a number of occasions by warning me when that nasty old eagle is around'.

Sally was so pleased that someone had taken pity on Milt and she said 'You must be a very nice rabbit, would you like to join Fritz and I? We're going down to the sea, my name is Sally' and the rabbit answered 'thank you, Sally, my name is Mae, but I don't really enjoy the seaside, especially when it's raining, so I'm going down my hole. Milt can't come with me unfortunately, but he doesn't seem to mind, he is quite used to being in the rain, it seems to rain a lot on him' and off she went with Milt while Sally and Fritz continued on their way to the sea.

A little while later they came across Herta. He seemed to be wandering aimlessly and quietly humming to himself. 'Hello Herta, Sally exclaimed 'what a coincidence, I just met Milt a few minutes ago, he found a mother at last'. 'Good for him' Herta said dejectedly and Sally, recognising his mood said 'why are you feeling low, Herta, you're not missing him, are you?' 'No, of course not' Herta snapped 'I just hate the rain, that's all'. 'Well why don't you join us' Sally said enthusiastically 'we're going to the sea'.