Make a Difference

by Sarah Dillard

  Don't miss a single Mouse Scout adventure:

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Sarah Dillard

  Melody for The Acorn Scout Song by Frank Fighera, lyrics by Sarah Dillard

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web! randomhousekids.com

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Make a difference / Sarah Dillard. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Mouse Scouts; 2)

  Summary: “The Mouse Scouts are back for another badge. Violet, Tigerlily, and their friends are determined to earn their ‘Make a Difference’ badge.”

  —Provided by publisher

  ISBN 978-0-385-75603-7 (trade) —

  ISBN 978-0-385-75605-1 (lib. bdg.)

  ISBN 978-0-385-75604-4 (pbk.) —

  ISBN 978-0-385-75606-8 (ebook)

  [1. Scouting (Youth activity)—Fiction. 2. Community life—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Mice—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.D57733Mak 2016

  [Fic]—dc23

  2015009894

  The illustrations were created using pencil and digital media.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  a

  For my brother, Rob, a good scout

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 Make a Difference!

  Chapter 2 Trouble with Trash

  Chapter 3 What’s the Difference?

  Chapter 4 The Big Idea!

  Chapter 5 Baskets!

  Chapter 6 Squirrel Trouble

  Chapter 7 A Cat in Need

  Chapter 8 The Plan

  Chapter 9 Making a BIG Difference

  Chapter 10 Late!

  Epilogue The Badge Ceremony

  About the Author

  Violet was in heaven. In her opinion, craft time was one of the best parts of being a Mouse Scout. Today they were weaving baskets out of grass clippings. The fresh green scent tickled her nose as she wove the blades of grass over and under each other. Her basket would be beautiful! Violet could already imagine how happy her mother would be when she brought it home. Maybe they could fill it with juniper berries or flower petals and put it on the table in the front hall.

  “Ugghh!” groaned Tigerlily. “Stupid grass clippings. What good are baskets anyway?” Violet glanced over at her friend. So far, Tigerlily’s basket looked more like a clump of twisted grass.

  “Oh, Tigerlily,” said Violet. “Just be patient with it. And you’re wrong. A basket can be very useful. Maybe you could put your tools in it or something.”

  “I’m going to use mine to gather crumbs,” said Cricket with her mouth full. It wasn’t even snack time yet, but Cricket had sneaked an acorn cracker when Miss Poppy wasn’t looking.

  “I’m going to use mine as a purse,” said Hyacinth. “It will make a lovely accessory.”

  Petunia put her basket on her head and swanned around the table. “It’s even better as a hat.”

  “PETUNIA!” Miss Poppy called out. Petunia stopped with a jerk, and the basket fell off her head, nearly taking her Acorn Scout cap with it.

  “Baskets are not hats,” said Miss Poppy. “I might expect that behavior from a Buttercup, but NOT from an Acorn Scout!”

  Petunia blushed, and the other Scouts put their heads down and went back to work. All except for Junebug, who sat in the corner quietly reading the Mouse Scout Monthly. Junebug was allergic to grass, so Miss Poppy had said that she could skip the day’s craft.

  “I wish I had allergies,” Tigerlily muttered, giving Junebug a sideways glance. Tigerlily wrestled some more with her clump of grass, but it was no use. Her basket did not look anything like Violet’s. No matter how hard she tried, her crafts never came out right.

  Tigerlily threw up her hands. “Why can’t we ever do fun stuff? When are we going to do the ‘Mousetrap Deployment’ badge? Or the ‘Puddle Navigation’ badge? When are we going to do something worthwhile?”

  Violet frowned. She thought making baskets was fun and very worthwhile. But Tigerlily was Tigerlily, and she wasn’t going to be happy unless she was doing something death-defying.

  Miss Poppy smiled. “As a matter of fact, you are about to embark on a very worthwhile project indeed. You are going to be working on your ‘Make a Difference’ badge.”

  “Make a difference?” Petunia asked. “Could you be a little more specific?”

  “Ah!” Miss Poppy exclaimed. “That is the beauty of this badge. The difference you make will be up to you. It could be planting a small garden of perky flowers to spread a little sunshine in a dreary corner of town. It could be making a commitment to smile at someone new once a day. Small things can have big results. Even if all you do is brighten someone’s day, you will have made a DIFFERENCE.

  “BUT—there is more to this badge than sunshine and smiles. The ‘Make a Difference’ badge requires dedication to your community and a firm belief in your cause. This badge is about helping OTHERS. Be sure to keep a daily logbook of the differences you make, large or small. In addition, we will work on a project as a troop to make a significant difference in our community. That project is up to you Scouts to determine. Now get ready to go out there and…MAKE A DIFFERENCE! But first, snack time!”

  All the Scouts except Tigerlily cheered, and helped themselves to snacks.

  “Does anyone understand what we’re supposed to be doing?” Tigerlily whispered to Violet.

  “Making a difference?” Violet whispered back.

  “But how are we going to do that?” asked Cricket.

  “Who knows?” said Hyacinth.

  “I certainly don’t,” said Petunia.

  “Let’s meet at the sandbox tomorrow,” Violet suggested. “Everyone try to think of something we can do to make a difference, and then we’ll pick the best one.”

  When they were finished with their snacks, the Scouts got up and gathered their baskets—all except Junebug, who was engrossed in her Mouse Scout Monthly. She got up to leave and walked right into the craft table.

  “Watch where you’re going, Junebug!” cried Petunia. But Junebug was only paying attention to the magazine. “Hmm,” she muttered. “Fascinating.”

  YOU Can Make a Difference!

  One of the greatest things that a Mouse Scout can do is to make a difference in her community. Whether leading a sing-along for the residents of an elder-mouse home, volunteering at a day-care center, or gathering nuts for the hungry, you are in a unique position as a Mouse Scout to make your community a better place.

  By following the Mouse Scout motto of being

  Cheerful,

  Aware, and

  Thoughtful

  (CAT, for short),

  YOU can make a difference!

  As usual, Tigerlily was the first to leave the Mouse Scout meeting. She poked her head through the bushes outside the basement of the Left Meadow Elementary School and looked both ways. It paid to be careful about humans, cats, and other predators. “All clear!” she declared, and the rest of the Sco
uts tumbled out onto the school lawn. Hyacinth and Petunia scampered off to the playground, and Cricket sniffed for crumbs. Junebug sat under a bush with her nose still buried in the Mouse Scout Monthly, while Violet and Tigerlily walked home together.

  Violet had been hoping to pick some more grass for her baskets on the way home, but Tigerlily was in a grumpy mood.

  “Leave it to Miss Poppy to take all the fun out of being a Mouse Scout,” Tigerlily said. “I’m looking for adventure. I want action and excitement! We should be building canoes out of birch bark or learning survival skills. Instead, we have to do something nice. Why do we have to do that ‘Make a Difference’ badge, anyway?”

  Sometimes Violet didn’t understand Tigerlily. She loved the idea of the “Make a Difference” badge.

  She couldn’t wait to get home and start her “Make a Difference” logbook. Imagine making a difference that could improve the community! Violet was determined to come up with the most amazing difference anyone had ever heard. All of the Scouts would be impressed. Even Miss Poppy would see what a great Scout she was!

  Violet’s heart swelled at the thought. This might be my moment, she was thinking when—BLAM! All at once, Violet was flat on the ground, her feet twisted in a plastic grocery bag.

  “Ouch! Where did that come from?” she squeaked. Tigerlily shook her head. Violet must have been daydreaming again. When her friend got lost in thought, she could trip over her own tail, to say nothing about a plastic bag. It was a particularly nice bag, too, Tigerlily noticed. It looked sturdy and fairly clean, and there were no visible holes. “Hey, can I have that?” Tigerlily bent to pick it up before Violet could answer. “A bag like this could come in handy.”

  “It’s just trash!” Violet said. “It’s filthy!”

  Tigerlily paid no attention to Violet. She was already imagining all sorts of possibilities for her new bag. It was so strong that she thought she could twist it into a rope. And ropes were always useful. “See you tomorrow!” Tigerlily called as she scampered off, dragging the bag behind her.

  “Make sure you wash your hands!” Violet called after her.

  Violet stood up and brushed herself off, examining herself for injuries. Besides a slight dent in her acorn cap, everything seemed fine. “I am going to make a difference,” she muttered. All she needed to do was figure out what that difference was going to be. She didn’t have a single idea so far, but she was sure that something would come to her.

  Before long, Violet’s head was back in the clouds. So she didn’t notice the cat watching her from across the street. She also didn’t notice his tail swish as she ducked into the bush that covered her front door.

  Trash Crafts

  While mice are naturally tidy, we have to share the planet with creatures that are not as concerned about having a clean and healthy environment. How many times have you been enjoying a walk in the park, only to have it ruined when a blowing piece of trash knocks you over? Just because humans are careless and messy doesn’t mean that mice have to suffer the consequences.

  Humans are the greatest producers of trash in the animal kingdom. And you would be surprised by how much of what they discard can still be put to good use. Why let something be thrown away if it can be reused or recycled?

  With a little ingenuity, you can turn trash into treasures. Below are a few examples of inventive ways to use ordinary trash. But don’t stop here. See what YOU can make from trash!

  Bottle caps: bowls, planters

  Fast-food containers: storage bins, bathtubs, wading pools

  Water bottles: sprinklers

  Straws: musical instruments, siphons, hoses

  Mouse pads: carpets, exercise mats

  Mousetraps: rowing machines

  When Violet woke up the next morning, an idea hit her: She knew exactly how the Mouse Scouts could make a difference! She was pretty sure everyone was going to love it. Well, everyone except for Tigerlily. But she’d come around eventually. Violet put on her Mouse Scout uniform, grabbed a sunflower seed muffin, and ran out the door.

  Tigerlily was walking up the sidewalk, dragging a plastic cup lid piled high with crumpled candy wrappers and bent coffee stirrers.

  “What are you doing, Tigerlily?” Violet asked.

  “I found these things for my collection,” said Tigerlily. “You never know when you might find a use for something.”

  Violet sniffed. “Maybe you should be thinking about making a difference instead of collecting trash.”

  “I wish we were working on some other badge,” said Tigerlily. “I have no idea how to make a difference! Have you thought of anything?”

  Violet was dying to share her idea, but she knew better than to talk to Tigerlily about it without the others around. “I have a few ideas,” she said. “Nothing special.”

  Tigerlily had already lost interest. She had just spotted another bottle cap for her collection.

  When they got to the sandbox, the rest of the troop was already there. Hyacinth was holding a paper clip.

  “Scouts, I have an idea!” Hyacinth announced. “We can make a difference by giving other mice makeovers so they’ll be as beautiful as me. Well, almost as beautiful, anyway. I’m going to start with Cricket.”

  Hyacinth took her paper clip and began to wrap Cricket’s tail around it.

  “Ouch!” said Cricket.

  “Stop complaining,” Hyacinth said. “Not everyone can have a naturally curly tail like me. Sometimes it hurts to be beautiful.”

  But when Hyacinth pulled the paper clip away, Cricket’s tail was as crooked as Petunia’s.

  “That made a difference, all right!” laughed Tigerlily. Cricket gave her a look and went to work shaking the kinks out of her tail.

  “I don’t think this is the kind of difference Miss Poppy meant,” Petunia sniffed, trying to hide the fact that her feelings were a little hurt. She was very self-conscious about her own crooked tail, which was the result of a harrowing experience with a mousetrap. “We’re supposed to do something that will make others feel happy. I know a few jokes. We could make a difference by making people laugh.”

  “I hope you don’t mean your jokes about Miss Poppy,” snorted Hyacinth. “You can’t tell those.”

  “Oh,” Petunia said. “I guess you’re right. Back to the drawing board. Does anyone else have a great idea?”

  Violet took a deep breath. It was now or never! “I think we should make baskets and fill them with flower petals and then give them to mice who are sad or needy, to brighten their day,” she said breathlessly. She looked around. No one seemed as impressed as she had imagined they would be. Violet’s nose began to twitch like it always did when she was nervous.

  “Ugh. Not more baskets!” groaned Tigerlily.

  “Borrr-ring,” said Petunia.

  “They’re right,” said Hyacinth. “Besides, we’ve already made baskets. Next idea?”

  Violet’s tail drooped and she hung her head. She had been so sure that she had come up with a good idea! But now even she had to admit that making baskets wasn’t much better than doing mouse makeovers or telling jokes. It wasn’t going to change her community. It wasn’t going to make a difference!

  Junebug looked up from her copy of the Mouse Scout Monthly. “If we really wanted to make a difference, we’d be more like the Scouts featured in this magazine. We’d find a cure for cancer, or stop hunger, or clean up the environment.”

  “How can we do any of those things?” Violet asked. “We’re not grown-ups! We can’t change the world. We might as well give up. We’re only mice, after all.”

  “Oh no we’re not!” said Tigerlily. She agreed with Junebug. If they had to go to the trouble of making a difference, it might as well be a really good one. “We’re Mouse Scouts! It’s just like in the Acorn Scout song. We may be small, but we’re going to be tall, remember? Oh, you know how it goes. Anyway, if we put our minds to it and work together, we can come up with something that will make a difference.”

  Tigerlil
y smiled nervously as everyone turned to her. Just because she believed they could make a difference didn’t mean she had any idea what that difference could be!

  Suddenly, another plastic bag drifted across the sandbox and caught on Violet’s acorn cap. “Yuck! Not another one!” she cried. “What is it with all of the trash around here, anyway? Someone should do something about this.”

  “That’s it!” said Tigerlily. She knew exactly who should do something about it.

  MICE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

  Daisy and Hydrangea: The Mouse Scouts was established in 1953 by two mice named Daisy and Hydrangea. They formed an unlikely friendship after Hydrangea, a house mouse who had never been out of doors, was caught and released in a field far from home. When Daisy, an intrepid field mouse, found her, Hydrangea was cold and starving. Daisy nursed her back to health and taught her about wilderness survival, during which time Hydrangea developed a deep love for the natural world. These two visionary mice saw a need to instill a respect for the environment in young mice everywhere, in the hope that future generations of mice would be dedicated to preserving it.

  Rosemary: The creator of the original recipe for Cheese Crispits was enjoying some cheese when she realized that she was late for a water safety lesson. She threw the cheese into her backpack, which was full of crumbs she had been collecting, and ran off to the birdbath in the park. There she spent several hours practicing floating, diving, and treading water…while her backpack sat out in the hot sun. By the time her water safety lesson was done, the cheese in Rosemary’s backpack had turned into a gooey, melted mess. Or had it? Rosemary was surprised to discover that when the melted cheese and crumbs cooled, they turned into a delicious crispy treat. Rosemary toyed with the recipe until she came up with Cheeso Delights, the popular Mouse Scout snack.