24-SWEET, SWEET MOUSE ISLAND!

SWEET, SWEET MOUSE ISLAND! Can a land be sweet! I don't mean sweet like sugar on a cream-cheese doughnut. I mean sweet as in "melt your heart sweet." Yes, there was no other place like sweet, sweet Mouse Island. We sailed toward land, grinning from ear to ear. Our smiles were so wide we could have been poster mice for Flossy, my dental rat. It felt so good to be home at last! By now you know how much I HATE traveling! We sailed by the statue that stands at the entrance to New Mouse City Harbor. It is the Statue of Liberty, holding up a big piece of

cheese. Mice come from all over just to see her. Today a crowd of rodents had gathered at her feet. They all gave us puzzled stares as we sailed by. "Let's show those mice a real pirate's homecoming!" Trap shouted. We bowed low. Then we waved our hats and cheered, "Hooray for New Mouse City!" Next, before we could stop him, Trap fired a round from our ship's one hundred cannons. Luckily,

the mice below knew it was only meant as a greeting. Leave it to my cousin to come in with a bang! The other ships in the water quickly let us pass. Then they followed behind us in a line. It was like we were leading a floating mouse parade.

"We are going to be famous, ratlets!" cried Trap. He was waving to the mice below as if he were a famouse rock star or a big-time movie mouse. "Look at them!" he squeaked excitedly. "They're practically drooling over us! Wait until they see the treasure!" We lowered the sails. The Silver claw dropped anchor right in the middle of the harbor.

The four of us climbed into a rowboat and reached the shore. The crowd was extra noisy. They had enough questions to sink our ship! "Where do you come from? And where does that enormouse ship come from?" "Why the cannons? And what about that flag with the skull?" "Look at their clothing! Hey, isn't that geronimo stilton, the newspaper mouse? You know, the one who published the YELLOW PAGES? Remember all those wrong numbers?" Oops! I had forgotten all about the phone book disaster.