The Abbreviated Adventures of Mogey & Smush Volume CCCXXX

One morning Mogey and Smush were pushing their wool cart to market piled high with newly shorn fleeces. Or more accurately, Smush was pushing the cart, while Mogey (who was supposed to be in front guiding his pal away from any stray potholes or hedgehogs) scurried around the grass beside the road picking gewdleberries.

Anyhow, Mogey and Smush were about halfway to town when they began to observe a stench so disagreeable, so loathsome, indeed, so funky, that it nearly put them off their mighty appetites.

"What is that smell?" Smush demanded, his view blocked by the white bundles of wool.

"Good heavens..." Mogey said, stopping dead in his tracks. "Stop the cart, Smush. STOP THE CART! I think there's a stink weasel in the road!"

Smush brought the cart to a screeching halt and peered hesitantly around the pile of fleeces. Sure enough, a small green critter was standing in their path, its little paws perched confidently on its hips.

"Is that..." Mogey muttered, unable to go on. Waves of stink were emanating from the creature, causing his and Smush's eyes to water and their nostrils to clamp shut.

"The most feared goofy animal in these parts?" Smush replied somberly. "Yes. A skunk only emits odors from its tail, but a stink weasel reeks from all four legs, as well as its eyes, ears, nose, and belly button. Plus, they've got the cunning of a score of weasels. That critter could ruin this entire cart of wool if he wanted to."

"But selling this wool is the only way we'll be able to afford the family-size box of freeze pops!" Mogey exclaimed. "What can we do?"

"I'll handle it," Smush answered bravely. And like the true hero he was, Smush walked straight up to that stink weasel, grabbed it by the scruff of the neck, and dragged it into a flower patch as Mogey pushed the cart on by.

Mogey was so grateful for Smush's sacrifice that every morning over the next month he picked out Smush's favorite flavor of freeze pop and chucked him one (from a healthy distance of 30 yards or so).