Grace Woollyhop’s Musical Mystery

Chapter Four The Honey Tree

The girls followed Goldie through the forest until she stopped, her ears pricked up. “Can you hear that?”

The girls listened.

“That’s beautiful,” said Jess. “Is it a piano playing?”

Goldie smiled. “No—it’s Melody Sweetsong. She’s singing!”

They went on until they reached a silver birch tree, surrounded by flowering bushes that smelled like delicious butterscotch ice cream.

“Here we are,” said Goldie, pointing to a little cottage nestled among the lowest branches of the tree. The nightingale’s song floated through open windows where feathery curtains fluttered in the soft breeze.

Goldie pulled a rope attached to a bell by the cottage door. When the bell jangled, the singing paused and Melody Sweetsong popped out.

“Goldie!” she said. “Hello, Jess and Lily! I was just practicing my Sweetsong Solo for the concert.”

The girls explained what had happened to Grace. “We need her tambourine to help turn her back to normal,” finished Jess.

Melody looked worried. “Grace always leaves it here.” She peered around the tree. “But where? I have so many cupboards.”

The girls looked more closely at the tree, and saw that there were lots of little doors in the trunk. The doors were all different shapes and sizes, and each had a handle shaped like a musical note.

“We’ll help you search,” said Jess, climbing on the lowest branch and helping Lily up.

Goldie and Melody joined them, opening all the cupboards. Inside each one was a musical instrument. They found little trumpets, banjos, cymbals, and a circle of tiny drums with ten drumsticks.

“That’s a bang-a-lot,” Melody explained. “The Twinkletail mice love playing it!”

Finally, behind a tall narrow door, Jess spotted a little tambourine. “Look!” she cried out.

“That’s Grace’s!” said Melody, perching on Lily’s shoulder.

“Hooray!” said Jess. She picked it up. “Oh, yuck! More sticky slime!”

Melody laughed. “That’s not slime,” she said. “It’s honey! Grace ate lots of it yesterday before her lesson. Her wool was covered in it when she arrived!”

Lily grinned at Jess. “Honey must be Grace’s favorite food right now. Can we get that from the Treasure Tree?”

Melody shook her head, smiling. “No, you need to visit the Honey Tree, near Sunshine Meadow,” she said.

The friends climbed down, thanked Melody, and set off.

“Good luck!” she trilled after them.

The path was lined with soft grass that tickled their ankles and made them giggle. They reached the red, orange, and yellow flowers of Sunshine Meadow, and just beyond that saw the Honey Tree, with a little hive nesting in its lower branches. It had flowery curtains hanging in the windows and a doormat outside.

The air was filled with the buzzing of busy bees flying in and out of the cottage.

“It’s so pretty!” cried Lily. She hurried toward the Honey Tree. But her foot slid on something wet, and she skidded across the ground. Jess reached out to catch her, but she slid, too.

“Eeek!” shrieked Jess, as they both tumbled down.

Lily sat up, examining her hands and knees. “Urgh!” she cried. “Slime!”

Goldie pulled them to their feet, but all three froze when they heard a voice bleating, “Haa haa!”

Hopper and Grace Woollyhop stood beneath a nearby tree, giggling at the girls.

Jess groaned. “Look at Grace’s coat! She looks as messy as Hopper already.”

The lamb laughed again. “Mess is fun!”

“The best fun!” said Hopper.

“We’re making the whole forest lovely and slimy!”

She hopped into the trees with Grace bounding after her.

Goldie turned to the girls, looking anxious. “If they keep going,” she said, “no one will be able to get around the forest. It’ll be too slimy.”

Lily nodded. “We have to lift that spell!”

“We have to get Grace’s favorite food,” Jess said. “But how?”

The Honey Tree was completely surrounded by a moat of slippery slime!