Chapter Five

Hastily, Poppet raised his trunk.

“Aha!” said the mouse. “Your mum told you, did she?”

“Told me what?”

“That mice run up inside elephants’ trunks.”

“Well, yes,” said Poppet. “She did.”

“And you believed her?”

“Yes.”

The mouse let out a loud squeak, whether of anger or of fright Poppet did not know (in fact it was of delight).

“What are you called, boy?” it said.

“Poppet. What about you?”

“My name,” said the mouse, “is Momo, and I am very glad to meet you.”

“Oh,” said Poppet. “Why?”

“Because,” said Momo, “when I was very young, my mother told me this story about mice and elephants and I didn’t believe her. That’s rubbish, I thought. One day, I said to myself, I’ll meet an elephant and find out if it’s true. And now I’ve met one.”

“But you’re not going to find out,” said Poppet, and he curled his trunk even higher.

“Oh, come on!” said Momo. “Be a sport. Just let me have a look up it.”

“No, no!” cried Poppet. “You’ll crawl in.”

“I won’t, honest.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart.”

So, very slowly, Poppet uncurled his trunk and lowered the tip of it towards the waiting mouse. The nearer it got to Momo, the more nervous Poppet became.

I must be mad, he thought, believing a mouse’s promise. Mice probably don’t know the meaning of the word.

Then suddenly he felt the tickle of whiskers at the very tip of his trunk as Momo peered into it, and he gave an enormous sneeze.