There once was a little lizard who grew up to be quite a wizard. Lizzie was her name, for that her mom was to blame. Now Lizzy was the type who just loved to complain and gripe. When things didn’t turn out, she was inclined to pout. And even when things were well, Lizzie would rebel. Besides her father and her mother, Lizzy also had a brother.

She and her family shared a house with a sailor who had no spouse. He didn’t really care if the lizards his house did share. He actually liked the guys because they kept away the flies. The cottage near the city wasn’t really very pretty. But the mailbox just outside, was the sailor’s joy and pride. He had made it himself, from an old bookshelf. In the shape of a two-story house it was, and worthy of much applause, as it caught the eye of every single passerby.

One spring the sailor went off to sail, and that was the beginning of this tale.

One fine day, most lizards were out to play. Lizzy’s brother, what a geek didn’t want to play hide and seek. But after some duress he ended up saying yes. And up the mailbox she did hide, but had no plans to go inside. But, oh dear me, what she didn’t see was the postman and his van, delivering the post to her sailor host. With the mail, Lizzie lost her tail and was last seen pushed into a place she had never been. With the closing of the slot, inside the mailbox she got caught. She couldn’t get out, even though she thrashed about. Oh, what bad luck, in the mailbox she was stuck. And at what a cost, her tail she had lost. That put her out of whack, even though it’d grow back. She was so dumbstruck and felt like such a schmuck. And to her great despair she was all alone there. The place was very roomy, but also very gloomy.

One thing was a treat, she had enough to eat, there were gnats galore, but for the rest it was a bore. At first she was furious but then became curious. When she could no longer cry, in the letters she did pry. Once over her self-pity, her new home she made pretty. The owner was away for quite a while, and the letters began to pile. The stamps she’d lick and on the wall would stick. That was her device to make the place look nice. That was the trick not to feel so homesick.

She taught herself to read, and that was quite a deed. From the letters, she got to know about different places she would never go. From the news, she got different views. She read lots of stories of yonder glories. She read of good and bad, and of happy and sad. The more she got to know, the wiser she did grow. The more her mind did expand, the better she could understand all about life, real troubles and strife.

Then one fine day, the sailor who had been away, came back with his knapsack. When his mail he went to see, Lizzie got set free. The man was quite confused and not very amused, to see his reading hampered of the mail that had been tampered. Lizzie was glad to find a smile, the family she had left behind. They had got quite a fright when they heard of all her plight. They were so impressed by the knowledge she expressed. They found it very strange that she had made such a change. Lizzy was no longer rude and was always in a good mood.

“Life has a funny way, of bringing changes everyday. We just have to make the best, of every time we are put to test. And at every turn, there are new things to learn. And no matter how distressed, count the ways we are blessed.” This is what the kids she told until the day she got old. She lived happily ever after and made sure her life was full of laughter.