It was a late-summer evening, and little by little the sky was turning pink and orange. In the garden, Ziggy, Lily, Skye, and Dash were building a little tent out of a big blanket and three chairs, pretending they were at the circus. Ziggy's four cats watched them, full of curiosity: Sofia, the cuddly little black cat; Dora, the brave tabby; and the two brothers, Poldo, plump and soft, and Milo, tall and able to leap incredibly high.

"I'll be the acrobat!" said Ziggy, and he did a somersault on the grass.

"And I'll be the lion tamer!" laughed Lily.

Skye clapped her hands happily, while Dash ran around in circles making a trumpet sound with his mouth.

Right at that moment, just as the first star lit up in the sky, a familiar sound rang out.

"CHOO CHOOO! CHOO CHOOO!"

From behind the hedge popped Toby the Magic Train, his little lights all aglow and a big smile painted on his front. Toby the Magic Train greeted them the way he always did, speaking in rhyme:

"Choo choo! Climb aboard, dear friends, and ride away with me,
a special place is waiting—can you guess where it will be?
Tonight the little stars are twinkling up above,
and a kind old man needs a helping hand, and love!"

The children didn't need to be told twice. They climbed aboard, the cats hopped on with one leap, and the little train set off happily among the stars.

When Toby stopped, in front of the children stood an enormous tent, colored red and yellow. Above the door, glowing letters read: THE GRAND SOMERSAULT CIRCUS. But something was odd: there was no music, no laughter. The little lights all around, which looked like tiny stars, were switched off.

On the doorstep stood an old clown with a red nose and sad eyes. His name was Serafino.

"Oh, children," he sighed, "you've come. But tonight the Grand Circus can't open. I feel melancholy."

"What does melancholy mean?" asked Skye, who didn't know that word.

"It means sad, with a little pinch of longing," Serafino explained with a half-smile. "Sad because I'm missing something important."

Then he told them everything. In the circus there was a music box—a tiny magical box that, when you open it, plays a sweet tune all by itself. That music box was the heart of the circus. But long ago Serafino had quarreled with Stella, his daughter, the finest acrobat in the world. After the argument, Stella had gone away and hidden the music box in one of the secret rooms of the Castle of Mirrors.

"The Castle of Mirrors is in there," said Serafino, pointing to a little door. "It's like a maze—a place full of corridors that all look the same, where it's terribly easy to get lost. There's a map that shows where the music box is. But the map can only be seen in the Magic Mirror… and the Magic Mirror plays tricks: it shows everything flipped, upside down! With these old eyes of mine, I can't make any sense of it anymore."

"We'll take care of it!" said Ziggy, his eyes shining.

They stepped into the Castle of Mirrors. Inside it was dark and there were mirrors everywhere: wide mirrors, narrow mirrors, mirrors that made your legs super long and your head teeny tiny. The children laughed as they looked at themselves, but they were very careful not to get lost in those identical corridors. At the far end, a big golden mirror shone with a light of its own. Above it the map appeared: but the writing was backwards, the arrows pointed the wrong way, and the stairs seemed to go up and down at the very same time.

"Easy!" said Dash. "The room is on the right!"

"No, on the left!" said Lily, tugging him by the shirt.

"No, no, you go up!" said Ziggy.

"I say you go down," whispered Skye.

And so, without even realizing it, they began to quarrel. One pulled this way, another pulled that way. Dash ran one way, Lily the other, and in a moment they all found themselves split up in that dark maze, each one on their own. The cats meowed anxiously, running from one corridor to another.

"Hey!" shouted Ziggy, stopping all at once. "This isn't good. We got lost because we got angry."

One by one, following Ziggy's voice, they all found each other again. They felt a little sorry.

"I'm sorry I pulled your shirt," Lily said to Dash.

"I'm sorry I shouted," said Dash.

Skye hugged them all together. "We're friends. In fact, we're like a family. And a family stays together."

Just then, in a corner, they found a soft, plump cushion with two little embroidered eyes. It was the Dream Cushion.

"A cushion!" said Skye. "Maybe it knows something."

As soon as Ziggy rested his head on the cushion to rest for a second, the Dream Cushion woke up and started talking without ever stopping:

"Once upon a time there was a little fish that could fly, and then a strawberry cake, turn right, no wait, the dragon was sleeping, seven steps forward, the moon is ticklish, climb the stairs, or maybe go down them, goodnight, bye, how lovely, riddle-me-ree!"

"Ugh!" said Ziggy, lifting his head. "It talks and talks, but it says a thousand things at once! You can't understand any of it!"

That was just how the Dream Cushion was: it was supposed to softly whisper the beginning of a single lovely dream, but it couldn't stay quiet and blurted them all out at once, mixing up dreams, lullabies, and clues. It was terribly funny, but no help at all.

Ziggy sat down to think. He looked at the mirror. He looked at the upside-down map. He looked at the chattering cushion. And all of a sudden… Aha! An idea lit up in his mind, like a light bulb.

"I've got it!" he jumped to his feet. "The mirror shows everything upside down, right? So, to see the map the right way, WE have to turn upside down too! Head down!"

"Head down?" asked Lily.

"Like the circus acrobats!" laughed Ziggy.

And so Ziggy did what he did best: he used his mind and his body together. He placed his hands on the ground, lifted his legs up, and did a handstand, straight as an upside-down pole. Then he walked on his hands, one step after another, face down, right in front of the mirror.

And—wonder of wonders! Upside down, the map wasn't flipped anymore: now it read perfectly! The arrows pointed the right way, the writing straightened itself out.

"The secret room is way up high!" shouted Ziggy, still upside down. "You have to pull the lever near the ceiling to open the little door!"

But the lever was very high. No child could reach it.

"Milo!" called Ziggy. "It's your turn!"

Milo, the cat who jumped higher than anyone, took a running start and made an enormous leap, all the way up to the lever near the ceiling. He grabbed on with his little paws and pulled down with all his might. But he was too light, and the lever wouldn't budge.

"Poldo, help him!" said Ziggy.

And so Poldo, the nice big chunky cat, jumped up too and hung underneath Milo, acting as a counterweight—that is, extra weight that pulls downward. Together, the two brothers pulled the lever… and CLACK!

With a sound of gears, a hidden staircase came down from the wall and a little golden door opened up high. Ziggy did a perfect somersault, then scrambled up the stairs as fast as a squirrel, followed by Lily, Dash, and Skye, with Sofia and Dora dashing up too.

Inside the secret room, on a velvet cushion, was the music box. Ziggy picked it up in his hands and opened it. And a sweet, delicate tune filled the whole Castle of Mirrors.

They ran out of the tent. Serafino, hearing that music, put a hand on his heart.

"The music box! You found it!"

At that very moment, from behind the tent, a girl in a sparkling costume came running: it was Stella, the acrobat, his daughter. She had heard the family music from far away.

"Papa!" said Stella, her eyes glistening.

"Stella!" said Serafino.

And they hugged. A great big hug, the kind that melts away every grumpy face.

"I'm sorry I quarreled with you," said Stella. "I missed you so much."

"I'm sorry too," said Serafino. "Even when we quarrel, I love you just the same."

Ziggy, Lily, Skye, and Dash looked at each other and smiled, because they too, just a little while before, had quarreled and then made up.

All of a sudden, POOF! All the little lights of the Grand Somersault Circus lit up like a thousand stars. The music began, the drums rolled, and the show could finally start. Stella flew on the trapeze, light as a butterfly, swung upside down, and caught her papa in midair as he laughed with joy. Serafino made everyone laugh with his silly somersaults and his red nose that went beep beep. Ziggy couldn't resist either: he did a whole row of somersaults in the middle of the ring, and Milo jumped higher than anyone while Poldo watched him proudly. The four children clapped as hard as they could, while the cats purred happily.

When it was time to head back, Toby the Magic Train was waiting outside for them, under a sky full of stars. They climbed aboard a little tired and very happy, and Toby said, in rhyme:

"Choo choo! We're heading home now, little treasures of mine,
tonight you joined two loving hearts and made them shine.
In families we squabble, but then we hug once more,
and smiles come back to every face, just like before!"

And as the little train raced home among the stars, the children understood something important: in a family, and among friends who are like a family, we love each other even when we quarrel. Because after every quarrel, if we say "sorry" and hug, peace always comes back. And that's the most beautiful thing in the whole world.