 Hello. Thank you for calling Dial a Story, presented by Children's Services, San Francisco Public Library. Do you ever wear mittens to keep your hands warm when it's cold outside? Let's see what happens when, on a cold snowy day, several animals try to squeeze into a lost mitten. In today's adapted story, The Mitten, a Ukrainian folktale retold by Alan Treselt. All morning the boy worked picking up sticks until his sled was well loaded. Then, just as he picked up the last stick, he dropped one of his mittens in the snow. Off he went with his load of wood, and the mitten was left lying on a snowdrift. As soon as he was out of sight, a little mouse came scurrying through the woods. She was very cold, and when she spied the boy's mitten with its feathery fur cuff, she popped right in to get warm. Presently a green frog came hip-hopping over the snow. Come quickly before you freeze, said the mouse. They had no sooner settled themselves snugly when an owl flew down and joined them. Next a rabbit asked, Is there room for me in that nice warm mitten? Not much space left, said the mouse, the frog and the owl. But come in, we'll see what we can do. Then a fox trotted up to the mitten, and after a good deal of trouble, she got herself in along with the others. But the worst was yet to come, for who should appear now but a bear? He was very big and very cold. No room, no room, cried the other animals. Nonsense, said the bear. And without so much as a please or thank you, he began crawling into the mitten. Now while all this was going on, along came a little old cricket. When she saw the mitten, she thought, Now that looks like a nice warm place. But that's all that was needed to finish off the poor old mitten. The cricket had no more than put her first foot inside. When, with a rip and a snap, the stitches came apart, the old leather cracked and the soft red lining split in half, popping all the animals into the snow. And at this very moment, the little boy discovered that he had only one mitten. So he went back to see where he might have dropped the other one. But all he could find were the ripped apart pieces. And he never did know what really happened to his mitten. But we know, don't we? Goodbye.