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Sammy, lived in a barn with his mum and his brothers and sisters in a cosy little corner by some hay. It was warm and the hay smelt nice. Sammy, loved all the barn smells and the noise of the other animals that lived there. He could hear the mice squeaking, the gentle mooing of the young calves and the bleat of the tiny lambs. In fact, he decided it was a lovely place to live but Sammy wondered about the place outside the barn and he wanted to know what it was like.
One day, his mum was busy; she had just seen a mouse by some sacks of corn. Instead of joining his brothers and sisters to watch and learn how to catch mice, Sammy crept towards the barn door. It was slightly open and he managed to squeeze through. It was very bright outside and it made Sammy blink his eyes. He found himself standing in the farmyard. What a big place! He could see a pond with some ducks. He saw lots of brown hens running about and some baby chicks. But what was that fierce looking animal with sharp teeth? 'It must be a dog!' though Sammy as he remembered the stories his mum told him. When he saw it chained to a kennel, Sammy wasn't frightened.
Sammy then spotted the farmhouse. That looked a nice place to live and he went to have a look. There was a man outside kneeling down and doing something on the ground. Sammy wanted to know what he was doing. As he walked up to the man he found the ground was rather damp, he could feel it on his paws. The man got very cross when he saw Sammy and poor Sammy ran straight into the farmhouse. The man had been cementing the path and it was all over Sammy's paws as he walked on the carpet! Sammy found himself in a large room and he could hear a loud buzzing noise coming from the window so he went to have a look. It was a blue-bottle and Sammy thought it would be fun to catch it. He jumped onto the window-sill but unfortunately, there was a vase full of flowers and he knocked them over! The farmer's wife heard the noise and came rushing in. She was very cross when she saw the paw marks on the carpet and even crosser when she saw the vase of flowers on the floor. Then she saw Sammy. How she shouted at him and chased him out of the room!
Sammy decided it was safer to keep away from the farmhouse and he began to walk down the lane that led to the village. On either side of the lane were fields and from one came a roaring noise, and Sammy went to have a look. The farmer was driving a tractor that had a machine at the back that was cutting the grass. Sammy watched for a while but soon got fed-up. When he turned to leave, he saw the farmer's coat hanging on the gate. He went over to have a look. There was a lovely smell coming from one of the pockets. He managed to open it with his paw and found a packet of chicken sandwiches. This was the farmer's dinner but Sammy was hungry and began to eat them. Just as he was finishing the last crumb the farmer saw him. The farmer was furious. He jumped from his tractor and ran over to Sammy. Sammy ran away frightened. He couldn't understand why the farmer was so cross! Now he found himself back in the lane. Which way should he go?
Sammy decided to carry on walking and soon he came to the village. There he saw lots of people and cars. He thought the cars were noisy, smelly things. Then a bus roared round the corner and frightened him so much that he ran into a supermarket. Inside he found lots of things to see but he had to be careful because people were pushing trolleys. Sammy was walking up and down the aisles gazing at all the things on the shelves when all of a sudden he stopped. There was a lovely fishy smell coming from a big metal box. Sammy couldn't see what was inside because he was too small. With a huge leap, he jumped right on top of the fridge! He climbed over the boxes of beef burgers, and went past the frozen peas until he came to the fishy smell. There he saw lots of fish wrapped in plastic bags, salmon, plaice, cod and trout. Which one should he have? His mouth began to water at the thought of eating a nice big juicy fish but before he could decide what to do, a man was standing over him and he was looking very cross. The man grabbed hold of him and his hands were so big that they squeezed Sammy so tightly he could hardly breathe. The man took him to the door and threw him out into the street. Before Sammy had time to think, he was seen by a dog that started to chase him. Sammy ran for his life, how could he escape? Then he saw a tree and managed to scramble up. He was only just in time. Poor Sammy sat in the tree feeling very sorry for himself! He decided he didn't like the world outside the barn. It seemed so full of cross people and he couldn't understand what made them cross!
That night, a very tired kitten crawled into the barn. His paws were badly cut and swollen with all the walking. His mum was pleased to see him and she licked his paws to make them better. The next day, Sammy joined his brothers and sisters in mouse catching lessons. Sammy became the best mouse-catcher the farmer had ever had! Even though Sammy leaves the barn to look at the other animals, he never left the farm again.
The End