04-NOT EVEN PENGUINS

NOT EVEN PENGUINS... Right then, I remembered about the guidebooks. "Grandfather, can you at least tell me about these guidebooks to Ratzikistan?" I asked. "I just don't understand." Grandfather William shook his head. "Poor Geronimo," he scoffed. "Of course you don't understand. Can you help it if your brain is so small? So teeny-weeny? So microscopic? Not everyone can be a genius like me." By now, I was ready to strangle him. But how could I? I could just see the headlines in the paper the next day: YOUNG PUBLISHER MURDERS FEEBLE OLD GRANDFATHER! STILTON SNUFFS OUT INNOCENT LIFE! No, I couldn't do

it. After all, I'm a newspaper mouse. I hate bad press. Instead, I tried again. "Are you really going to print three million copies?" I asked. For once, Grandfather William seemed to hear me. He rolled his eyes. "Wake up, Geronimo! Wake up! WAKE UUUUUUP!" he shouted in my ear. Then he WAVED a map under my snout. "What's that?" I mumbled, taken by surprise. He sneered and shoved the map at me again. This time I could see it clearly. It was a map of Ratzikistan. "Have you ever noticed that there are no guidebooks to Ratzikistan?" Grandfather demanded. I opened my mouth to reply, but he was already babbling on. "Ah, Ratzikistan," Grandfather said with

a sigh. "A place no one has ever heard of before. Just think of all of the guidebooks we can sell!" He clapped his paws. "Sometimes I am so smart, I scare myself!" he chuckled. I was stunned. Had Grandfather William's cheese finally slipped off his cracker? No one goes to Ratzikistan. Not even penguins. "But, Grandfather," I began. "There are no guidebooks to Ratzikistan because the temperature there is forty degrees below zero!