In a mouse family, five mice were once born. At first glance, these mice were quite ordinary. But only at first glance. Because one of them, Mick, was missing part of one ear. And because of that, Mick could hear worse than the other mice. The parents knew mice with this problem, but they were all like this because they had suffered some kind of trauma: most of them had been attacked by a cat or some other predatory animal or bird. And because of that, the parents became ashamed of Mick.
- The others will survive, they said at night, thinking Mick was asleep. - But what's gonna happen to this one? We won't be able to feed him.
Mick listened to their conversations, listened... and when he grew up, he ran away to live in the forest.
- Poor fellow," you will say, "how can he live in the forest, when he had a hard time even at home? He could be attacked by anyone there!
But the parents didn't know everything about Mick.
First of all, his damaged ear did have hearing, and not badly at all. He just heard a little worse than he should. But with his right healthy ear, Mick could hear almost twice as well as a mouse with two healthy ears!
So Mick reached the forest and looked around. Suddenly he saw something red come down from the tree toward him quickly.
- Hi, are you new? - asked the little squirrel (which of course she was) - I'm Nettie. Come on, I'll show you the forest!
Mick easily got along with Nettie and the other squirrels. They were not at all embarrassed by the peculiarity of their new acquaintance. And no one knew that one day Mick would save the lives of his new friends.
If mice have the worst enemies in the forest - birds of prey - mostly owls - and foxes, the squirrel has a marten. One of them was feuding with Mick's new friend's family. And one night the marten decided to settle the score with them.
Mick always had trouble falling asleep, and when he grew up, he slept much less than normal mice do. Besides, he was awake most of the night. But the marten knew nothing about her enemies' new friend. And that turned out badly for her.
When it got dark, the marten decided:
- Now no one will disturb me, all their friends will soon be asleep-and moved toward the tree in the hollow of which Nettie and her family lived.
Meanwhile, Mick crawled out of his burrow to find something tasty and suddenly heard some strange sound.
- Like someone climbing a tree - he thought, and looking around he realized with horror - A marten!
Mick realized he had to act fast. So he ran to the tree, climbed up, and... bit the marten with all his might! He kept squeaking and biting it until the marten ran away.
- I'll go and look for another forest," she decided, "there are plenty of squirrels in the world, but these squirrels are friends with some rabid mouse!
When Nettie and her family found out what Mick had done, they were very grateful. That's how his specialness helped him make new friends.
The end