Crispin

There is an otter up a tree.

Yes, I know otters don't climb trees, but sometimes they don't have to. Every now and then there's a new craze amongst the young - sometimes it's building decorated dens, sometimes it's stone-skimming competitions, sometimes it's making seesaws and jumping on them to see how far you can catapult your best friend into the treetops. This autumn it's the carrying game, when squirrels give the non-climbing animals lifts up and down trees. Moles aren't interested. They don't like being far from the earth. Hedgehogs can be a bit like that, too, but some of them have such a spirit of adventure that they'll go for anything. Hope loves getting carried up a tree, even though he can't see much when he gets there. And otters, you know what they're like. Never miss an adventure.

Swanfeather was desperate to get as high up in the trees as she possibly could, so Urchin hoisted her over his shoulder and whizzed up with her, into that favourite tree of his on Watchtop Hill. She loved it. But then when she'd been there for a while, and Urchin was about to take her back down again, she clung on to a branch with four paws and a tail, squealed with glee and absolutely refused to move an inch. Swanfeather can be like that. Urchin had duties of his own to attend to, so when teasing and gentle persuasion failed he just told her to shout for a lift when she wanted one, shinned down the tree, and left her up there. She's quite safe, some of us are keeping an eye on her. Padra and Arran know where she is.

She hasn't shouted for help. I don't know if she's still enjoying it, or just pretending to. She might decide to try to get down by herself, which isn't a good idea for an otter, but it's all right. her friends have piled an enormous heap of leaves and moss underneath so she's got something soft to land on.

There she goes! And there's the big eyes and the whiskery face popping up out of the leaves. Oh dear, she'll want to do it again now.