Mrs. Stone and the Mosquito with the Long Proboscis
Once upon a time, in a cottage at the very edge of the Whispering Woods, lived a very round and cheerful old woman named Mrs. Stone.
Mrs. Stone loved to knit when she wasn’t busy planting in her garden. She often wore a purple sweater that she had made herself, but today was too hot for sweaters. So, Mrs. Stone sat on her front porch wearing her flowery summer dress, sipping chamomile iced tea, and knitting socks for her six grandchildren.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple—all the colors of the rainbow! Click-clack, click-clack went her knitting needles through the bright yellow yarn. That’s when Monty appeared.
Monty was a mosquito, but he wasn’t just any mosquito. Monty had a very, very long proboscis. If you’ve never heard of a proboscis before, it’s just a fancy name for a mosquito's mouth, kind of like a long straw that they use to eat. Monty’s proboscis was so long that he had to wrap it around his neck like a scarf just to fly straight!
Monty landed on the arm of Mrs. Stone’s chair. Monty usually liked to sip sweet nectar from the jasmine flowers in Mrs. Stone’s garden. But today, his proboscis was causing him great trouble. It had gotten a tiny kink in it, like a bent drinking straw, and he couldn’t get a single drop of nectar.
“Oh, bother!” Monty buzzed, which sounded like a tiny, high-pitched flute.
Mrs. Stone looked over her spectacles and down at Monty.
“My goodness! Look at you! You look like you’re carrying a flagpole on your face. Poor thing!”
Monty sadly lowered his long proboscis. It was so heavy that it made him tilt forward until his tiny bottom was sticking straight up in the air!
Mrs. Stone was kind and had a heart as soft as her yarn.
“I bet you’re hungry,” she said, mostly to herself because she knew mosquitoes don’t understand human talk.
She reached into her knitting basket and pulled out a tiny silver thimble. She filled it with a drop of her sweet chamomile tea and set it on the table.
That’s when she noticed the kink in Monty’s proboscis. So, very gently, with the tip of her smallest knitting needle, she helped Monty straighten the kink in his long nose.
“There you go,” she whispered softly.
Monty let out a big sigh of relief. Then he stepped back, aimed his magnificent long proboscis into the thimble, and took a long, cool drink. He was so happy!
After that day, Monty came to visit Mrs. Stone every morning. He liked to sip chamomile tea, and Mrs. Stone liked the company of her new handy helper.
Whenever Mrs. Stone dropped a stitch in her knitting or couldn’t thread the eye of her needle, Monty stepped up to help her. He would hook the thread with his long proboscis, fly through the needle hole, and pull the thread through like a tiny circus performer.
— The End —
Teaching Moment: Kindness makes the world a nicer place.
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