The magic peanut wasn't always magic ... it started life as a very ordinairy peanut, until one day, a squirrel was scavaging for food ... he was so hungry, he gathered up all the peanuts in the forest ... so many peanuts that he almost couldn't carry them all in his paws. He held onto his peanuts so tightly that he thought they would crush ... As his belly rumbled, the peanuts wobbled, but he managed to juggle a few in his paws. The squirrel was rushing to miss the woodland traffic so much, that he slipped on a wet oak leaf and almost flattened his tail. Nuts flew into the air ... one by one and toppled back to the ground, hitting the squirrel on his nose. Not noticing, the squirrel dropped one - it landed by the side of the path underneath a mushroom... where it sat all summer. Ants came and made a mountain around the peanut ... and worms buried it deeper in the ground. When the sun shone and the rain poured, the peanut burst open and a shoot broke out of the peanut's shell. Gradually, the stalk lengthened and leaves sprouted. They soaked up more and more of the sun ... and the leaves turned greener ... and greener. The magic peanut bush grew stronger and stronger, day by day. The magic peanut bush was soon so large that nothing could be seen behind it. Even if he stood on his toes, the squirrel could only just peek above the tops of the branches - and they tickled his nose so much that the squirrel sneezed a very loud "ATTTISSSHHOOOO !". His sneeze shook the branches of the peanut tree and another peanut fell to the ground. As it hit the grass and the bush shook, moondust sprinkled everywhere, left by a fairy gathering mushrooms that morning. Some of the moondust must have dropped off her wand, because very soon magic things started to happen. This peanut turned into a magic flower that shone bright ... all over the forest ... like the magic wand belonging to the fairy. When the squirrel went to eat it, the squirrel turned magic, too. He could jump up the branch of a tree in three seconds and fly through the air. The squirrel made a magic wish - for peanuts, of course. Soon all the woodland animals had enough peanuts to eat for a year ... and their picnic was one of the best in the world - with peanut butter sandwiches, mmmmm ... a real treat. They had so many peanuts that they could juggle and play peanut marbles. Of course, the squirrel's wish was that he would win. Because of the magic peanut, his wish came true, naturally. The squirrels used their peanuts as draughts and rolled one or two into the river where they got lost on the riverside amongst the pebbles and rocks. When the fish gobbled up the magic peanuts, they too turned magic and glowed gold. With peanut biscuits and peanut sweets - the peanuts tasted a real treat to eat. There was peanut gateaux and peanut lemonade and all the peanut butter that a squirrel could eat. Once the drops from the waterfall splashed on the magic peanuts - they turned into diamonds ... when the sun shone, they turned into gold. Squirrel gold miners sought this treasure and soon became so rich that they were never hungry again. The squirrel brushed the magic peanuts with their tails - and the magic peanuts turned into rubies. When they rolled in the grass, the magic peanuts turned into emeralds, which made the magic squirrel smile. Soon the tasty aroma of peanuts wafted through the forest ... making the squirrels mouths water. Mmmmmmm. The magic peanut bush had the tastiest leaves - with tasty peanut bees on tasty peanut trees. Before long, the magic peanut bush was famous throughtout the forest and all the woodland creatures came to the magic peanut bush to make their wishes come true. A spider wished for a spider's web as big as a fishing net ... a butterfly wished for summer because it didn't like the rain, I bet. An ant wished for an anthill as big as Mount Everest ... a centipede wished for a hundred new pairs of socks to match his hundred pairs of boots on his hundreds of feet. A rabbit sat beneath the peanut bush, wishing for bigger ears and a more fluffy tail - soon, his tail was so fluffy that it looked like candy floss. A dragonfly wished on the magic peanut bush to really be a dragonfly. Soon he had magicked himself into a dragon,.that blew real flames. A worm wished to be longer and soon was so long that he could wrap himself around a tree two times. Hundreds of greenfly landed on the magic peanut bush and wished that they weren't green ... soon they were multi - coloured because they wanted to be seen. A bird flying overhead wished for fluffier feathers - soon his wings were big enough and he could fly in all kinds of weather.
© Jacqueline Richards 2006
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