Claire and the Whisper-Weed Patch

Claire loved her garden more than anything. It wasn't just any garden; it was a wonderland where carrots grew as tall as her knees and cabbages were bouncy like trampolines. Claire was a fantastic problem-solver. She once built a tiny slide out of a giant rhubarb leaf to help a line of busy ants get to their anthill faster. The air always smelled sweet, like strawberries and warm earth.

One sunny afternoon, while watering her prize-winning, bright orange pumpkin, her little sparkly watering can slipped! It rolled and tumbled, bumpity-bump, right into the one place Claire never went: the Whisper-Weed Patch. The weeds there grew in a dark, tangled clump, and whenever the wind blew, they made a shivery, shaky, rustle-shake sound that made Claire's tummy feel fluttery.

“Oh, no!” Claire whispered. Her pumpkin needed that water. Being a problem-solver, she thought hard. “Aha!” She found a very long branch and tried to poke around in the weeds to get her can back. But the branch just made things worse! The weeds wiggled and hissed, and the shivery, shaky, rustle-shake sound grew louder and scarier. Claire felt her brave feelings shrink and her scared feelings grow big.

Just as a tear began to wobble in her eye, Claire looked at her big, thirsty pumpkin. She knew she had to be brave. Thinking like a true problem-solver, she realized it wasn't the weeds that were scary, it was the *sound*. So, she decided to make her own sound! She grabbed two fallen seed pods and, holding them like tiny maracas, she shook them with all her might. *Shuka-shuka-happy-shake!* Marching right up to the patch, she sang a silly song, her happy noise chasing the scary rustles away. Pushing aside the leaves, she saw her sparkly can… and three tiny field mice, who scurried away from her loud, happy music!

Claire giggled. It was only little mice! She grabbed her watering can, filled it up, and gave her pumpkin a big, happy drink. From that day on, she wasn't afraid of the patch anymore. She even cleared a small path and called it her “Mouse Meeting Spot.” Claire learned that sometimes, a scary problem just needs a brave, happy sound to solve it.