The dog’s tale

Dog

Natalie was alone in the playroom after tea. The dog thought she looked sad. She just sat on the mat, and didn’t play with any of the toys. Dog wanted to talk to her, but to talk to the children, he needed the magician’s help.

“Psst! Magician! Will you help me talk to Natalie?”

“Why should I help you?” snarled the musician.

Dog was shocked. He had never heard the magician talk like this before. Whatever was wrong with him?

He moved over to the tray where the magician lived with the unicorns, monsters, skeletons and fairies, and flopped carefully down beside him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked gently.

“What do you care?” said the magician. “You sit there all day on your soft cushion getting lots of cuddles, while I have to sit in this cold tray, and no one even notices when my magic is running out.”

Dog was surprised. He stretched out a floppy paw and touched the magician on the shoulder. “I didn’t know magic could run out,” he said. “But I do know everyone loves you.”

“I know, I know. It’s just that my magic is running low and no one has taken me to get it filled up.”

Dog didn’t know where the magician went to fill up his magic, and he wanted to help.

But now he had two problems: Natalie needed cheering up, but to speak to her he needed the magican’s magic. And the magician needed to fill up his magic, and to help him do that, Dog would have to leave Natalie! Being kind was sometimes harder than chewing a bone.

“OK,” he said to the magician, after a pause. “First things first. What do I have to do to help you?”

“Take me to the basket of stones,” the magician said, sounding much less grumpy now, “and touch the end of my staff to the shiny, silver stone. Then shake the stone three times.”

Dog was astonished at being asked to do such a peculiar thing. But he picked up the magician in his soft silky paws and bounded over to the basket of stones. He easily spotted the right stone because it was silver and shone like a mirror. It looked very special. But what would happen when he shook it?

“Go on! Hurry!” the magician begged. “I’m getting very weak.”

So Dog touched the magician’s long staff to the side of the shiny stone, and shook the stone three times. It rang out like a fairy bell. Ting! Ting! Ting!

“Wow!” he said. “That was brilliant.”

“Yes, it was,” said a voice behind him. And there was Natalie smiling happily and talking to him. She had understood what he said! The magician must have used his magic straight away to let Natalie understand him!

“Are you OK now?” Dog asked Natalie. “You were looking so sad I was going to come and cheer you up.”

“I felt better straight away when the silver stone chimed. I think it’s magical! It chased away the sadness and now I feel happy again.”

Dog looked at the magician, who simply winked and tweaked his long white beard.

So Dog sat and talked to Natalie till bedtime.

“Time up!” said the magician. “I don’t want to get weak again.”

“Thank you,” said Dog, knowing that Natalie could no longer hear him. “Next time you need to refill your magic, just let me know. That’s what friends are for. Sleep tight!”

The moral of this tale is that when you make someone happy, they are able to make others happy.