Little Worm lives in Mrs Shoe's back garden.

   Little Worm loves to come out from his little hole in the ground and have a wander round Mrs Shoe's garden. Mrs Shoe keeps her garden very neat and tidy, but one day as Little Worm popped his head up out of the ground he was suddenly plucked from out of the ground by a bird and the bird bounced off across Mrs Shoe's garden, presumably taking Little Worm to hide under a bush to EAT Little Worm.

   Little Worm was very scared, so scared that he was not his usual colour, pinky brown any more, he had turned WHITE!

   Little Worm could not see where he was going as the bird was bouncing along the ground with Little Worm hanging out of its mouth so everything looked really blurry to Little Worm. He was expecting to go sliding down the bird's throat at any minute, because he knew that birds ate worms for breakfast.

   Suddenly the bird stopped bouncing along and Little Worm found himself being spat back out of the bird's beak and he landed with a thump on the ground.  Little Worm was a little dazed, and confused and thought the bird would now start eating him. 

BUT...

It didn't.

When Little Worm looked up he saw a smiling little Robin with a red breast. 

"Hello I'm Ruby Robin" said the bird, "sorry about that, plucking you out of the ground when you had only just woke up, but I had to pretend to get up and have breakfast like all the other birds do, but I don't actually like worms, I'm vegetarian."

Little Worm was still worried. 

"A, a, a, what, a vegemarium?" said Little Worm, he had never heard of a Vegemarium." 

"No, not vegemarium" said Ruby Robin.  "A vegetarian, it means I don't eat meat, I just eat nuts and seeds, I can't stand the taste of worms, I licked one once and was nearly sick. But none of the other birds know I'm vegetarian, so that's why I had to pick you up and carry you away". 

"Oh" said Little Worm who was starting to feel like the luckiest Little Worm alive.  He wasn't going to be eaten after all. 

"In fact" said Ruby Robin "that was the longest I've ever had a worm in my mouth and I need to find some nuts to take the awful taste away." 

Little Worm knew where Mrs Shoe had some nuts and pointed them out in the garden to Ruby Robin. 

"Thank you" said Ruby Robin. 

"No" said Little Worm "THANK YOU for not eating me."
  

And that was how Little Worm became friends with Ruby Robin.  From that day on, if Ruby Robin was out with his other bird friends and they were all searching for worms, Ruby Robin would go to Little Worm's hole and quietly say,

"Psst, Little Worm its me, Ruby Robin, can you help me out?"

And Little Worm would come out of his hole and let Ruby Robin grab him so that the other birds all thought Ruby Robin was eating a worm. But we know differently don't we? 

Ruby Robin never ate worms, but that was Ruby Robin's and Little Worm's secret.  Ruby Robin would pretend to eat Little Worm under a bush, but really Ruby Robin would be putting Little Worm back down another hole for safety.

But just before Little Worm went in the hole, the Little Worm and Ruby Robin would wink at each other.
 
The End