The Mitten - Ukrainian

Squeak! My name is Desman, and my whiskers were frozen stiff from the cold. The whole forest was covered in a fluffy white blanket of snow, and I was shivering as I searched for a warm place to hide. Just then, a boy walking through the woods dropped something soft and red from his pocket. It was a mitten! I scurried over and peeked inside—it was the coziest, warmest, wooliest home I had ever seen. I knew right away this was more than just a place to sleep; it was the beginning of the story everyone now calls The Mitten.

I wasn't alone for long. Soon, a green frog came hopping by, his feet cold on the ice. 'Little mouse, may I please come in?' he croaked. 'It's so cold out here!'. The mitten was my perfect size, but I couldn't leave him outside. 'Come in!' I squeaked. He squeezed in next to me. Then, a fluffy rabbit with a twitching nose appeared. 'Is there room for me?' she whispered. The mitten stretched a little, and we welcomed her. An owl, a fox, and a wolf followed, each one asking politely to share our warm space. With every new friend, the mitten magically grew bigger and bigger, stretching to make room for all of us inside its woolly walls.

Things started to get very snug! After the wolf came a wild boar with mighty tusks, and he wiggled his way in. The seams of the mitten groaned and creaked, but they held strong. We were all packed together like seeds in a pod, warm and happy. But then, we heard the heaviest footsteps of all. A great big bear lumbered toward us. 'Is there any room left?' he rumbled in a deep voice. We all looked at each other. How could a bear possibly fit? But he looked so cold, and we had shared with everyone else. 'Try to squeeze in!' we all shouted. He pushed and wiggled and grunted and shoved until, somehow, he was inside with the rest of us!

The mitten was stretched as far as it could go when a tiny cricket, no bigger than my whisker, crawled up. 'Can I join you?' it chirped. It crawled onto the bear's nose to find a spot, and its little legs tickled him. The bear's nose began to twitch. 'Ah... ah... AH-CHOO!' he roared. The sneeze was so big that the mitten burst apart! Animals flew everywhere, landing in soft piles of snow. Just then, the boy came back, found his mitten, and took it home. We all scurried off to our own homes, but we were friends now. That old mitten taught us that there's always room for one more if you open your heart. This story from Ukraine shows how a little kindness can make a warm home for everyone, and it’s a tale that still inspires people to share, especially on cold winter nights.