A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM

The heavy carved oak door is timidly pushed open and a small boy cautiously steps inside the dark museum. He pushes the door and it slowly shuts. The noise echoes round the room. The boy holds his breath. Nobody comes, so he makes his timid way to the nearest glass case. He places his hot, sticky hands an the glass and pulls himself up on to his tiptoes. His nose is at the same level as the glass and he can peer through it into the case. Inside there is nothing but a few bits of broken pottery, so he turns from the case, leaving traces of his sticky fingers on the glass. He walks over to a cupboard with a glass door.

Inside the cupboard there is a cracked red cup, which does not look very interesting, but on the side of the cupboard there is a small black button. The boy presses the button and the whole cupboard lights up, changing the colour of the cup to a yellowish white. After switching the light on and ofr for five minutes, he decides to go to another department.

He goes into a long corridor. The only sounds that can be heard are his own footsteps clanging down on the floor. On one of the walls of the corridor there is a large fish tank. The boy stops and tries to make the brightly-coloured fish follow his finger, but they just stare at him and open and close their gaping mouths.

He comes to another room and goes in. There are hundreds of stuffed birds and animals of every description. There is a long multicoloured snake, which changes colours as the light is reflected off it, and a small brown mouse and a big black bear with teeth like daggers. The boy is getting nervous, he has never before been so close to wild animals, alive or stuffed.