28-SOMETHING FAMILIAR

SOMETHING FAMILIAR I kept READING. And I soon discovered that the great-great-great-great- grandfather of my great- grandfather was a cousin of the pirate Silverpaw! Jumping gerbil babies! That meant I had PIRATE BLOOD in my veins. I glanced at the picture of Silverpaw. For a second, I wondered what I would look like with an eye patch. Maybe I could try one on when I got home. Geronimo the Pirate. I sort of

liked the sound of it. It made me feel ROUGH and RUGGED. Not at all like my usual self. "Have you found the controls yet? What's taking you so long, Cheesebrain?!" my sister screeched. I raced upstairs. So much for rough and rugged. I couldn't wait to tell Trap, Thea, and Benjamin what I'd discovered. My relatives seemed proud to have pirate blood in their veins. We were still talking about pirates when Ben interrupted us. "Come look!"

he called. He had finished polishing the ship's brass fixtures. They were brilliant! In fact, they looked as if they were made of... GOLD! "Cheesecake!" Trap squeaked. "It is GOLD!" Yes, everything on the ship was made of GOLD. The doors handles, the faucets, the pots— even the anchor! So that was why the ship was called TREASURE. It really was worth its weight in gold! I proposed donating the ship to the NATIONAL MOUSEUM OF NEW MOUSE CITY in the name of the Stilton family. "It is an important moment in our family's history," I explained. "It will be great to share it with all the rodents on Mouse Island."

Our past, for good or for bad, belongs to us. We need to know it in order to know ourselves better.