That morning a mischievous wind was blowing. It wasn't a mean wind, it was a joking wind: it snatched up hats and made them fly like crazy balloons. Ziggy, Lily, Skye and Dash were in the garden, having a jumping contest in the puddles, trying to make the biggest splashes in the whole world.

"Look at my frog jump!" shouted Dash, and he leaped up high.

But right as he was up in the air, the wind pulled off his little woolly hat and tossed it into the sky. Dash landed in the puddle with a giant "SPLASH", all wet from head to toe, while his little hat fluttered far away.

"My hat is running away!" Dash giggled, chasing after it in zig zags. The other three burst out laughing so hard they had to hold their tummies.

And that was when they heard it. From far away came a familiar sound: "CHOO CHOO CHOOO!"

It was Toby the Magic Train. He popped out from behind the hedge, all shiny and colorful, and stopped with a happy whistle. He opened his door and said, as he always did, speaking in rhyme:

"Hello little ones, what a windy day!
To a wonderful workshop I'll whisk you away!
A little mouse invents behind its doors,
with a thousand drawers and squeaky floors!"

The children jumped for joy. The wind blew Lily's hat away too, but nobody noticed: they were all already on board. "CHOO CHOO!" and off they went, the little train set off along the tracks that sparkled.

After a journey full of laughter, Toby stopped in front of a crooked little house. Above the door was a sign painted by hand: "The Workshop of a Thousand Drawers".

The children tiptoed inside. How wonderful! There were curious things from floor to ceiling. Drawers that jingled, little balls that rolled all by themselves, springs that popped out with a "BOING", and a strange smell in the air, a smell of slightly burnt cookies.

"Who could it be?" whispered Skye.

From behind a pile of gears popped a teeny tiny little mouse, with two round little glasses that kept sliding down to the tip of his nose. He tried to push them back up, tripped over a spool of thread and fell head over heels into a box of buttons.

"Ahem... welcome!" he said, pulling himself up, with buttons raining down from his ears. "I am Otto, the inventor. And this is my most beautiful invention!"

Otto proudly lifted up a gadget full of colorful tubes and funnels. "It's called the Color-Sprayer! It makes everything prettier and brighter!"

But while he was showing it off, his glasses slid down his nose again. Otto squinted to see better, took a step, and... "OOPS!" He tripped over his own tail. The Color-Sprayer flew into the air, spun around three times and opened up right toward the window, where nearby there was a little circus.

"PSHHHH!" A gray cloud came out of the gadget and covered the whole big tent.

The children ran to the window. And they stood there with their mouths wide open. The circus, which before was full of colors, had now turned pale, pale, faded like an old photograph. The cloth animals were gray, the little flags were white, even the clowns' noses had turned the color of fog.

"Oh no!" squeaked Otto, putting his little paws over his mouth. "I've faded the Pale Circus!"

Dash crossed his arms, angry. "Really, Otto! You've ruined everything!"

"What a klutz!" said Lily with her hands on her hips.

Otto lowered his ears and his little face grew sad. "I... I didn't do it on purpose," he whispered.

A clown came out of the tent, all gray and glum. "Without colors we can't do the show," he said in a tiny voice. "The children will cry."

"Wait!" squeaked Otto, perking up his ears. "There's a way! If I make a magic perfume and spray it, all the colors come back! But I need three special smells. And they're scattered inside the circus... hidden among the gymnastics equipment!"

"Gymnastics equipment?" Dash's eyes went wide and he smiled from ear to ear. "You mean an obstacle race? This is my moment! I'm the fastest of everyone!"

And off he raced. But he went so fast that he didn't see the pile of sawdust on the floor. "WHOOSH!" He slid like he was on a slide, arms whirling in the air, and only stopped when he ended up with his bottom inside a drum. "BOOM!" He got stuck, with his little legs poking out like two breadsticks.

The others laughed so much that Skye had to sit down on the floor.

"The first smell is up there," Otto pointed, "on top of the trampoline. It's the smell of fresh mint!"

Dash freed himself from the drum and ran to the trampoline. He jumped once: "HOP!" Twice: "HOP HOP!" But on the third he bounced too hard, flew up high, high, did a somersault in the air and landed upside down in a bucket of popcorn. "MUNCH," he went without meaning to, his mouth full of popcorn. "Mmm, yummy though."

Ziggy and Lily dove in to gather the mint smell, which sparkled like a little green cloud. "Got it!" shouted Lily, stubborn as always, popping it into a jar.

But Otto, who wanted to help, tried to run too and tripped again, this time over a bowling pin. He fell and knocked over a whole row of pins, which rolled onto Dash, who rolled onto a tower of cushions, which all came crashing down together: "CRASH!"

From under the mountain of cushions came Dash's voice: "Is everyone still here?"

Otto pulled himself up, with tears in his eyes. "I'm a disaster. I only make messes. Maybe it's better if I give up and hide forever." And he curled up all tiny behind a cushion, ashamed.

There was a moment of silence. Then Skye, sweet and calm, went up to the little mouse and sat down beside him. She put a hand on his little shoulder.

"Otto," she said in a kind voice, "you made a mistake. But you didn't do it to be mean. Don't you know that everyone makes mistakes? Us too. Look at Dash, he ended up in a drum!"

"It's true!" giggled Dash, popping out of the cushions with a flake of popcorn still in his hair. "And in a bucket of popcorn! You're not the only klutz, you know?"

Otto sniffled. "But... you're not angry with me anymore?"

"We forgive you," said Lily, and Ziggy nodded too with a big smile.

"And now come join our team," added Dash, pulling him up by a little paw. "With those funny inventions we really need you! Together we're stronger!"

Otto's little face lit up like a light bulb. His glasses slid down his nose again, but this time he could see perfectly: he saw four friends smiling at him.

And that's when the team really worked. Otto pulled a spring out of his pocket and stuck it onto Dash's shoes. "Try now!" Dash jumped and the spring made him fly all the way up to the top of the tent, where he grabbed the strawberry smell, sweet and pink like a candy. "YIPPEE!" he shouted happily.

There was one last smell to find. Otto wrinkled his nose. "This one... is the smell of aged cheese. It stinks a little."

"What a stink!" laughed Ziggy, holding his nose.

"It smells like feet!" cackled Dash, and everyone burst out laughing again, making silly faces.

The cheese smell was hidden at the bottom of a cloth tunnel. Dash dove into it, crawling like a caterpillar, came out the other side with the jar in his hand and a super funny look on his face: "I got it! But what a stiiink!"

Otto mixed the three smells in his gadget: mint, strawberry and cheese. Then, with his little paws trembling just a bit, he added his newest invention: a tiny spinning fan made from a teaspoon and a button. "This one makes the perfume come out all at once!" he explained. "I invented it just for this."

They pointed the Color-Sprayer at the circus. "One... two... THREE!" they counted together.

"PSHHHH!"

A perfumed cloud, sparkling with a thousand little dots, spread over the whole tent. And then, as if by magic, the colors came back. The red of the little flags, the yellow of the clowns' noses, the blue of the tent, the green of the cloth animals. Everything burst into color like a rainbow waking up!

The clown did a cartwheel of joy. "Our colors! Thank you, thank you!"

Outside, the sky was turning orange, pink and purple: a beautiful sunset had arrived. And up there, among the clouds, funny shapes were forming: a cloud shaped like a rabbit, one shaped like a cat, one shaped like an elephant with a long, long trunk.

"Look at the clouds!" whispered Skye, her eyes shining with happiness.

Otto was the happiest little mouse in the world. "I made a mistake," he said, "but you forgave me. And together we put everything right. Thank you, friends."

Dash gave him a pat on the shoulder. "And your fan saved the day! You're a clever inventor, Otto."

And that's when, from outside, came the familiar sound: "CHOO CHOO!" Toby the Magic Train was waiting for them. They all climbed aboard, waving goodbye to Otto with their hands until he was as small as a little dot.

As the little train glided home under the colorful sunset, Toby said, in rhyme:

"A friend made a mistake and felt terribly sad,
but you hugged him and showed it was not so bad.
When you forgive a friend, the colors come right,
and the whole world glows with a warm, happy light!"

The children fell asleep happy, rocked by the "CHOO CHOO", with still a little bit of cheese smell in their noses and lots of colors in their eyes.