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Brrrrrrring,brrrrrrring! rang Granny Ada's phone in the kitchen. Granny Ada stopped stirring her chocolate cookies and wiped her hands on a towel. She picked up the phone.
"Howdy-do!" Granny Ada said.
"Help!" yelled Mr. Whiskers. "Help! There's a creature in my general store!"
Granny Ada could hear crashes and bumps coming from somewhere. "What? A creature? Now, now, Mr. Whiskers, calm down and tell me all about it."
Mr. Whiskers took a deep breath and rubbed the whiskers on his chin. Mr. Whiskers' real name wasn't Mr. Whiskers, but he had been called that longer than anyone could remember. His beard looked like white lace hanging from his face, and he was thin like a blade of grass and chuckled most of the time. He owned the General Store. Granny Ada loved Mr. Whiskers, but today he was not chuckling.
"I left the back door open in the storage room, and now there's a creature in there," Mr. Whiskers cried. "Sounds as though it is tearing up the room! Oh, my apples! The creature is going to eat them all!"
"Hold on, Mr. Whiskers. Mrs. Salt and I will come to the rescue."
Granny Ada ran next door and knocked on Mrs. Salt's door. Mrs. Salt appeared in her housecleaning hat which was a scarf wrapped around her head and tied in a big knot on her forehead.
"I need your help, Mrs. Salt! There's a creature in Mr. Whiskers' General Store. We have to rescue the apples."
"Yes! Yes!" shouted Mrs. Salt. "Just let me select a hat, and I will meet you at the General Store."
Granny Ada walked briskly all the way. Mr. Whiskers paced back and forth on the porch of his general store, stopping at times to listen to the crashes and bangs coming from the storage room.
"I'm here now, Mr. Whiskers," said Granny Ada as she came up the stair. "Mrs. Salt is right behind. We'll help you get that creature."
Mrs. Salt came bounding up the stair as well then, wearing her African safari hat. "A creature, you say. Have you seen it?" she asked.
Mr. Whiskers shook his head. "Sounds big to me."
"Well, we're here now," Granny Ada said. "Not to worry. Let's go."
The three creature catchers tiptoed up to the storage room door. Suddenly, it became very quiet in there. Mrs. Salt took off her hat and put her ear up to the door.
"Not a peep," she said, and put her hat back on. "What's the plan?"
Granny Ada thought a moment. "Whenever you are afraid of something, you have to face your fear. You can do that by doing what you do best. Mr. Whiskers, what do you do best?"
"Well," said Mr. Whiskers. "The best thing that I can do is tie knots. I am an expert knot tier."
"OK." said Granny Ada. "You go get a rope, and you can tie up the creature." She looked at Mrs. Salt. "And what do you do best, Mrs. Salt?"
Mrs. Salt smiled. "I can grab and wrestle."
"OK. You grab the creature and wrestle it."
Mr. Whiskers came back with a rope and looked at Granny Ada. "And what do you do best, my dear?" he asked.
Granny Ada smiled. "I am the best talker."
"Well," said Mr. Whiskers. "You can talk to it, Mrs. Salt can grab and wrestle it, and I can tie it up with this rope."
"Agreed!" said Granny Ada.
The creature in the storeroom started knocking things over again. Granny Ada took hold of the doorknob, and opened the door a crack. The three lined up with Granny Ada in front, Mrs. Salt in the middle, and Mr. Whiskers at the end with his rope.
"Here, creature, creature," Granny Ada cooed. She crept into the storeroom. "There, there, nice creature, wherever you are . . ."
From the corner of the storage room next to the apple bin, they heard the creature munching apples. The three walked slowly without a sound, right foot, then left foot, right foot, then left foot.
Mrs. Salt looked down and spied something. She stooped over and picked up a green bean. "Do you keep green beans in here? she whispered.
"Why, no," answered Mr. Whiskers. "Where did that come from?"
In the darkness, they could see a large form standing next to the apple bin. "Nice, creature, " cooed Granny Ada. "We are not going to hurt you. Just be good, now."
Mrs. Salt squinted to see where she might grab the creature and wrestle it. When the three got closer, she leaped into the darkness. Granny Ada and Mr. Whiskers could see the two shapes whirling about. Apples went flying. Boxes, buckets and cans scattered across the floor.
"I've got 'im!" yelled Mrs. Salt. "Turn on the light!"
Granny Ada ran to the light switch and flipped it on while Mr. Whiskers readied his rope. In the corner, Mrs. Salt laid across the back of the creature with her arms around its neck and her heals dug into its side.
"PEPITO!" yelled Granny Ada. "Naughty, burro! What are you doing in Mr. Whiskers' storage room?"
Uncle Ottie and Aunt Poppy's burro, Pepito, had somehow found his way to Mr. Whisker's General Store all the way from the green bean farm.
Pepito let out a mighty "heeee-haaaaw" and walked toward Granny Ada with Mrs. Salt still on his back. His little basket of green beans that he carried for Uncle Ottie and Aunt Poppy had slipped to his side and green beans lay all over the floor. Mr. Whiskers tied his rope around Pepito's neck.
"Pepito loves apples," Granny Ada said. "Let's get him home." Mr. Whiskers winked at Granny Ada.
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