That afternoon in the garden at home, the wind was warm and smelled of wet earth. Ziggy, Lily, Skye, and Dash had built a slide out of big leaves leaning against a bench, and they rolled acorns down it.

"Look at mine, it's the fastest!" laughed Dash, hopping up and down.

"Mine goes around the curves!" said Lily, so determined, never giving up.

Ziggy's four cats watched everything with wiggling tails. Sofia, the little black kitten, purred by Ziggy's feet. Dora, the brave tabby, batted at the acorns. Poldo, the big fat tabby, lay stretched out like a pillow, and his brother Milo, tall and quick, made high jumps to catch them in the air.

Skye, calm as always, gathered the prettiest acorns and lined them up. "They are little treasures," she whispered.

"And mine jumps like a frog!" added Ziggy, who never stood still. He tossed his acorn up high, and Milo leaped and caught it in the air, landing gracefully on all four paws. Everyone laughed.

"Good job, Milo!" said Ziggy, clapping his hands. "You are the best jumping cat in the whole world!"

Poldo, though, had plopped his big belly on top of three acorns, and he did not want to move at all. "Poldo, you are a pillow!" giggled Lily. Poldo opened one eye, yawned, and stayed nice and cozy.

Just then, from the far end of the garden, came a sound they knew.

"CHOO CHOOOO!"

It was Toby the Magic Train, with shiny wheels and little puffs of smoke. He stopped and said, as always, in rhyme:

"Hello, dear children, come on, let's go!
A faraway kingdom is waiting, you know!
There's a tower that spins and climbs to the sky,
and a little lost treasure to find, you and I!"

The children clapped their hands. A treasure under the ground? They all climbed aboard, and the four cats jumped on too. Toby whistled and set off, while the sky began to fill with color.

When they stepped off, their mouths dropped open. In front of them was the little Kingdom of Frondombra, and in the middle rose a tall, tall, very narrow tower: the Spinny-Spin Tower. It had a spiral staircase that went up and turned, and turned again, all the way to a round room full of books. Around it was a green garden with a stone well. And above it all, the sunset: the sky was orange, pink, and purple, like a painting made just moments ago.

"How beautiful!" said Skye, her eyes shining.

But near the well there was someone who did not seem happy at all. It was a gentleman with a beard of moss and a cloak of leaves: the king of Frondombra. Only, looking closely, he had no crown on his head.

"Oh, poor me," sobbed the king. "My crown has fallen into the well!"

Ziggy stepped up to the stone edge and looked down. Far, far below, on the shallow water, something was sparkling. It was not a golden crown. It was a little crown made of twigs, tiny leaves, and acorns.

"But it's made of wood and acorns," said Dash, a little surprised.

"Of course!" answered the king. "I am a gardener king. My crown is made of nature, and it is my most precious treasure. To me, it is worth more than gold."

At that moment, a tiny creature popped up from the grass. It was a little mouse with a helmet made of half an acorn on his head. He walked on tiptoe, in little quick steps, and smelled of acorn and moss.

"I am Sir Crumb," he said, giving a bow. "Knight of the garden and protector of the smallest ones. I must examine the situation with the greatest care."

The children looked at each other. "What does examine mean?" asked Ziggy.

"It means to look carefully at everything," explained Sir Crumb, "measuring it all to understand how things are." And he began to measure the well with his tiny little paw. "One, two, three little paws... Too deep! Too narrow! My paw doesn't reach. And neither does the king's hand."

The king began to cry again. "And the water is rising little by little. The crown is about to get all wet and sink to the bottom!"

There was a moment of silence. How do you grab something that is so far down, in such a narrow hole?

Lily tried to lean over, but Mom would have scolded her: it was dangerous. Dash tried to lower a branch, but it was too short. The well's bucket was broken and dangled off to one side.

Ziggy, though, was not looking at the well. He was looking at everything else. He looked at the Spinny-Spin Tower, so tall. He looked at Milo making his big jumps. He looked at Poldo, heavy as a sack of potatoes. He looked at the colorful string that held the books together up in the library. And then he looked at a sticky, resiny pinecone that had fallen on the ground.

And all at once... Aha!

"I have an idea!" shouted Ziggy, and his eyes sparkled brighter than the sunset. "Let's build a fishing rod! Not to catch fish, but to catch the crown!"

"A fishing rod?" repeated Sir Crumb, curious. "Tell me, tell me everything!"

"We need a long stick," said Ziggy, running around. "That little branch over there is perfect! Then we need a line: let's take the string from the books. And at the end of the line we put the sticky pinecone, so when it touches the crown it sticks and pulls it up!"

Now they had to make it happen, and this is where the body came in.

Milo, with a very high jump, reached the window of the Tower and brought down the ball of string. Ziggy tied the string to the long branch, and on the other end of the string he attached the pinecone full of resin.

"Now comes the hard part," said Ziggy. "I have to lean over the well to lower the pinecone all the way down. But I don't want to fall. You have to hold me!"

So the children lined up, one behind the other, like a little train. Skye held Ziggy by the waist, Dash held Skye, Lily held Dash. And to be the weight, big Poldo sat on the last end of the string, still as a rock.

"One... two... three... down we go!" said Ziggy.

Slowly, the pinecone went down into the dark of the well. It went lower and lower, swinging. Everyone held their breath. The pinecone reached the crown... it brushed against it...

But right at that moment the pinecone slipped and came off the string! It fell into the water with a little "PLOP" and the crown stayed down there.

"Oh no!" said the king, and he covered his eyes with his hands.

Sir Crumb ran back and forth along the edge, measuring the air with his little paw. "I examine, I examine, but I don't understand! Was the pinecone the right thing, or maybe not?"

Skye held Ziggy tighter. "You're almost there. I won't let you go."

Ziggy felt his heart beating fast. For a moment he thought he would not make it. But then he took a breath, looked more closely, and understood the mistake. "The pinecone was too light and too smooth. We need something that really grabs on!"

He looked around again. And he saw Dora, the brave cat, playing with a little branch full of tiny hooks: it was a bramble, with its curved thorns.

"Aha! Another Aha!" shouted Ziggy. "We don't need something sticky. We need a hook! The bramble thorns are like lots of tiny little hooks!"

Carefully, so he wouldn't prick himself, Ziggy tied the bramble branch to the tip of the string. Then the little train of children lined up again. Poldo went back to being the weight. And Dora, fearless, climbed onto the edge of the well to look down and guide Ziggy with her meows.

"Slowly... to the left... now down," Dora seemed to say with her voice.

The hook of thorns went down into the well. It touched the crown. Ziggy moved it just a little, very calmly. One thorn caught onto a twig of the crown. Then another. Then one more.

"I've got it!" whispered Ziggy. "Now let's all pull up together, but gently!"

The little train of children began to pull. Poldo shifted backwards to help. Milo gave little pats to the string to keep it straight. Sofia purred loudly, as if to give everyone courage.

Up along the string the crown came out of the well, dripping but safe, and it shone in the orange light of the sunset.

"HOORAY!" everyone shouted together. Poldo was so happy that he rolled in the grass like a ball, and everyone burst out laughing.

The king took his little crown of twigs, leaves, and acorns and put it on his head. He was crying again, but this time with joy. "Thank you, children! You have saved my treasure. It is not gold, I know. But nature is a gift, and it must be protected and loved like the most precious thing there is."

Skye nodded softly, her eyes shining and a big smile on her face.

Sir Crumb took off his acorn helmet and bowed to Ziggy. "I have examined everything with precision," he said. "And I declare that you are a true knight. I name you Ziggy, Knight of Ideas! Because you used your head to think and your body to do."

Ziggy blushed, happy. The cats circled around him, purring.

The sky was almost dark now, and a familiar whistle was heard.

"CHOO CHOOOO!"

Toby the Magic Train had come back to get them. He opened his doors and said, in rhyme:

"Well done, dear children, what a great quest,
the crown made of leaves is safe in its nest!
A gift made of branches is greater than gold,
we love nature dearly, the finest to hold!"

The children said goodbye to the king and Sir Crumb, climbed aboard with the four tired and happy cats, and Toby carried them home under the first stars, while each of them was already dreaming of the next adventure.