The Little Otter and the Crooked Cup

Little Otter set a cup on the windowsill. It had a round belly, a crooked handle and a blue stripe that wandered like the river. He had shaped the clay. Rabbit had painted the stripe. Badger had baked it hard in her special pottery oven. Now it was ready for Mouse's new home.

Otter wrapped the cup in a soft cloth. “Shall we take it together?” asked Rabbit. “You carry the flowers,” he said. Rabbit picked three daisies from her garden. Otter lifted the cup with both paws. He could already imagine Mouse's whiskers twitching with delight.

Mouse opened her little green door. There were boxes everywhere. One held spoons. One held socks. One held a single enormous pine cone. “I haven't decided where that goes,” she said. Otter unwrapped the cup. Mouse clasped her paws. “Oh! Did you make this?” “Yes,” said Otter. “I made it for you.”

“What a beautiful stripe!” said Mouse. “It looks like our river.” Rabbit's ears rose. Otter opened his mouth. He could tell Mouse who had painted it. But Mouse was smiling at him so warmly. “It goes all the way round,” he said instead. Rabbit lowered the daisies onto the table.

Mouse fetched water and filled the cup. The three daisies stood inside it, bobbing above the blue stripe. “A tiny river garden!” she said. Otter grinned. Rabbit smiled a smaller smile. Then Mouse pulled a plain wooden box from beside the door. “Could you paint a matching stripe on my seed box?”

Otter glanced at Rabbit. She was looking at her paws. “I could try,” he said. Mouse brought out a brush and a little pot of blue paint. Otter dipped the brush deep. A fat blue drop plopped onto the lid. He swept at it. The drop became a puddle. The puddle grew a tail.

Mouse tilted her head. “That river seems to have a pond.” Otter tried to laugh. Rabbit reached towards the brush, then stopped. Otter looked from the spreading paint to the neat stripe on the cup. Rabbit had practised those long, gentle curves. He had watched her wipe the extra paint off her brush. He had said nothing about it.

He put the brush down. “Rabbit painted your cup,” he told Mouse. “I shaped it, but the lovely stripe is hers. I should have said.” Then he turned to Rabbit. “I'm sorry I let you stand there while I took all the thanks.” Rabbit lifted her ears a little. “I wanted you to remember we made it together.”

“We did,” said Otter. “And Badger baked it.” Mouse looked at her cup again. “Then I've got a present from three friends.” She thanked Rabbit for the winding river. Rabbit's whiskers twitched. Otter pointed at the box. “Would you show me how to help with this?”

Rabbit studied the blue puddle. “A pond could be rather nice.” She showed Otter how to wipe his brush against the rim. Rabbit painted a narrow river leading into the pond. Otter added small green reeds around its edge, slowly and carefully. Mouse chose a place for the box beneath her window.

When Badger came to visit, the paint was dry. “Who decorated this?” she asked. Otter's paw went up, then opened towards his friends. “Rabbit painted the river. I made the pond and reeds. Mouse chose its place.” The cup of daisies stood above it. There was room on the windowsill for every part of the story.