Once upon a time there was a girl named Maddie. She was five years old and had a pretty smile. She had lots of friends -- friends from school and friends in the neighborhood where she lived. These were her human friends. Maddie was a very lucky girl. She also had friends named Moose and Magic Tree. Nobody else could see Moose or Magic Tree, but Maddie had a lot of fun with them.

Moose was -- guess!!! Moose was a very large RABBIT! He was as tall as Maddie. He lived around the corner from Maddie near the Magic Tree.

Well, one day Maddie went looking for Moose because she was feeling sad. Her friend Tommy was sick and couldn't play and Maddie wanted to ride bikes. So, she looked for Moose. Just as she rounded the corner of the house, there he was! "Hey Maddie, let's play!" he said. That made her feel much better. So they set off to the park.

The park had lots of trees to climb and swings and good places to play hide and seek. Maddie and Moose were playing hide and seek. "Your turn to find me," Maddie yelled. "Hurry up," said Moose and started to count really fast. Maddie ran around the nearest tree and hid under some bushes. Moose finished counting and started to look. He came around the tree "Uh Oh," thought Maddie, "he's going to find me right away." But Moose kept looking. While he looked for her, he sang a song "O the Maddie girl is a rilly/silly girl. She hooks her dreams to the rocks and streams." Maddie thought HE was the rilly silly one. "Maddie, where are you?" he called. Just when Maddie thought he'd never find her, POP there he was under the bush with her. "OK, my turn," she said.

So she started to count. Just then some older kids came into the park. One boy said, "Hey kid, what are you doing?" Maddie told him, "I'm playing hide and seek with my friend Moose." Another, bigger boy said, "Let's play toss the girl instead!" "Yeah," said a big girl, ,"She's small enough to throw around." Well, Maddie didn't feel small and she didn't feel like being thrown around, so she stomped her foot and said "NOt with me you don't!" and she started to walk away. One of the big kids grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "No!!" she yelled.

Just then a branch fell off the tree and hit the kid holding Maddie. "Ouch!" he let go of Maddie. She started to run farther into the woods. Moose yelled, "Over here!" so she ran to where he was hiding under some bushes. She crawled in after him and went "WHEW! I sure am glad to see you!"

When the big kids started to follow her, more of the tree fell in their way and onto them. Well, that made catching Maddie more trouble than it was worth. The big girl said "Oh, she's just a little kid. Let's go bug somebody else." "Yeah," they all said and trooped away.

When they were gone, Moose said, "Did you guess where the branches came from?" Maddie said, "I was too busy running to think. OH, I bet Magic Tree moved in and helped us." "Yep," Moose said, "Thank goodness for good old Magic Tree." So they went back to the tree and did a thank you dance. The tree's branches moved back and forth. The wind wasn't blowing. Do you think that the tree was dancing too?