In a forest there lived a little grey mouse. The little mouse liked colours, he liked flowers, but most of all he liked birds. He liked robins best. They had such beautiful red feathers. The mouse envied them so much. He was just grey himself, and that’s such a boring colour. He really wished he had a red coat like the robin’s feathers.
So he went to the wise owl.
“Wise Owl, I would like to be red like the birds. Tell me where I can find such a colour to dye my fur,” asked the mouse.
“Mouse, your fur is pretty. We are all the way we are for a reason,” replied the wise owl.
But the mouse didn’t want to hear that.
“I want to be red. And I will do anything to change my fur,” said the mouse.
“Very well. Try asking the magpie. She steals people, she has a nest full of stuff, maybe some of it will help you,” the owl finally advised and fell asleep.
The mouse went to the tree where the magpie lived.
“Magpie, please look! Don’t you have something that can dye my plain grey fur?” cried the mouse.
The magpie leaned out of its nest and shook its head.
“No. All I have are ornaments. If you wanted a ring or an earring, I could help you. But repainting your fur isn’t something any of my treasures can do. But I’ve heard people tell a story about magic nuts. Try asking a squirrel if he knows of any.”
The mouse thanked her and ran after the squirrel.
“Squirrel, squirrel, do you have a magic nut? I don’t want to be a boring grey mouse, I want to be a red mouse.”
“But, little mouse,” said the squirrel, “magic nuts are only in fairy tales. They won’t change your fur. If a hawk saw you…”
“A hawk will help me, that’s it. Bye and thank you!” the mouse interrupted the squirrel and ran away to find the hawk.
“Wait, mouse, don’t go there,” cried the squirrel, but the mouse was already far away and didn’t hear her call.
The mouse ran to the path by the field and looked around the sky. Then she saw a hawk hovering proudly in the air.
“Hawk! Hawk! I want to be red,” cried the mouse.
“Look, dinner,” cried the hawk, and he wanted to catch the mouse to eat.
The mouse saw that the hawk didn’t want to help her but to eat her, so he jumped into the dust on the path and crouched down. The hawk could no longer see her. The mouse’s fur was as grey as the road by the field. So the hawk flew home and left the mouse unharmed.
The mouse ran to his hole. On the way, she met an owl.
“So, mouse, have you figured out how to change the color of your fur?” Owl asked.
“I haven’t. But I don’t want to be red anymore. I’m glad I am the way I am. You were right, owl. My grey fur saved my life today. If I was red, I wouldn’t have been able to hide from the hawk.”
“Well done, little mouse. We are each as nature made us. And it did so for a good reason,” the owl praised the mouse and went back to sleep on his favorite branch.
