I just knew it wasn’t a normal day – it felt different. There was a nip in the air and it was misty. I ran outside, the leaves crunching beneath me. We went to the small wood, with its exotic scents – a breeze of weeds, nettles and wet, freshly cut timber.
When we reached the clearing in the wood, I saw a little field mouse which looked as hungry as ever, with a twig held tightly in its tiny teeth. As plenty of nature books say, if you see an animal you should keep very still. So that is what I decided to do. The field mouse sat still and looked back at me for a bit. After a while it gave up the staring contest and scampered to a nearby tree covered with fresh green moss and started hitting it with the twig.
Soon I realised why. The mouse was trying to get to some wheat grain that I could see was in the middle of a squirrel’s tree hole. What a cheek! Trying to steal from somebody else’s house! I felt sorry for the squirrel in that hole. Our little rodent succeeded after several tries and I skipped home thinking, “I found a little criminal.”
Anoushka, eight
• Read this week’s other YCD, by John, 10: ‘Searching for remains of a vanished world’
