PAST TENSE ( TEXT )

      Teddy Bear Time

Quite often Miss Mole would look
after the young ones who lived in the
woodland, when their parents went out
in the evening.
"I just love baby-sitting," sighed
Miss Mole, as she gazed at the little
animals, "you're all such darlings!"
"But we're not babies," grumbled
the fieldmice twins, "we're almost
grown up!"
"Well you'll always be babies to
me," giggled Miss Mole, as she gave
them all a great big hug.
But one evening when Miss Mole
was baby-sitting, something very
strange happened ...
All the little animals had walked
over to Miss Mole's house just before
dark. They were laughing and joking
and making lots of noise as they went
along.
All of a sudden one of the rabbits
heard a strange sound. Then one or
two of the little animals saw something
move near the top of the trees.
"What was that?" gasped a baby
badger as he grabbed one of the
squirrels.
Then, as the wind rustled the
leaves on the tree ... they all saw it ... a
spooky white thing fl ying through the
branches!
"It's a ghost!" screamed a small
hedgehog. And everyone ran as fast
as they could and landed on a heap at
Miss Mole's front door.
"Whatever is wrong?" cried Miss
Mole as she opened her door, and in
fell all the little animals.
"We've seen a ghost!" sobbed
the rabbit. "It's chased us all the way
through the wood, and now it's up in
that tree!"
Miss Mole put on her extra strong
glasses and took a good look.
"Goodness me," she gasped, "there
it is!"
Right then and there, brave Miss
Mole reached for her longest broom
and pulled something out of the
branches above.
"Here's your ghost," laughed Miss
Mole. "It's a plastic bag. I lost it on
my way back from the woodland
supermarket!"
All the little animals breathed a big
sigh of relief as Miss Mole took them
inside and closed the door.
"Gather round and I'll tell you a
story," she said kindly.
"As long as it's not a ghost story,"
whispered the baby badger.
Taken from 50 Bedtime Stories, 2002