“SO, what’s new in the papers?” asked Bina when Kamal entered the playground with a rolled newspaper in his hand.

A newspaper was an integral part of Kamal’s personality. Despite his relatively young age — he turned 11 last month — he enjoyed reading it and often shared the news with his friends, Bina and Tina.

“Environmental protection,” the boy said, significantly stressing each syllable. “These days all nice and noble people are contributing their best to conserve and protect the natural environment. And bad people are busy with destroying it. They cut down trees, burn down forests, and pollute water and air — in short, cause degradation of Nature. If it goes like this, some day there will be no environment left!”

“Then how can we stay apart from such a good cause?!” said Bina, the eldest of girls. “We should also save the environment!”

“Yes! Yes!” clapped Tina excitedly. “I will be the first!”

“But where shall we do it?” Kamal scratched his head, somewhat confused. “In our building, maybe? Or what?”

“Absolutely!” said Bina. “Who says we don’t have Nature here? Let’s declare tomorrow to be the official “Environment Protection Day” of our building!”

The decision was passed with a solid vote.

Next day early in the morning the trio gathered in the playground and enthusiastically commenced to their duties.

“Keep a keen eye on trespassers,” instructed Bina.

Half hour passed, followed by an hour more, but nobody walked on the grass, nor stumped the trees.

“Perhaps someone will come to pluck the roses from the flowerbed and then we’ll catch him,” said Kamal wistfully. “We must remain alert.”

They sturdily kept their vigilance for another 15 minutes, when out of nowhere a small dog jumped in the centre of the flowerbed and began to sniff the flowers!

“Shoo-shoo!” Bina and Tina waved in unison. “Get out of there!”

The doggy looked at them, gleefully wagged the tail and again leaned to the roses.

“Do not sniff them!” shouted the girls. “Just leave the flowerbed! You’ll break the flowers!”

The dog gave them a cheerful look, and began to scratch the grass with its paw, as if looking for something it had dropped.

“Stop it immediately, you stupid dog! Why are you harming the environment?” both the girls cried, trying to hiss away the intruder.

Unmoved by the attention, the dog took another paw-ful of grass.

“All right then!” and with their patience finally exhausted, Bina and Tina fiercely attacked the flowerbed. Tina was about to grab the dog, when suddenly her foot slipped and the girl landed directly on the dahlias, smashing four large buds during the fall. The dog ran away, and a second later came the thundering snarl of the gardener: “Hey! You are again vandalising the flowers! I am going straight to your parents!”

What an incredible start of the Nature Protection Day!

“Never mind!” cheerfully said Kamal. “And chin up! Animals are also a part of Nature. Let’s protect the animals in our building.”

“Yeah, indeed!” beamed Bina

“Let’s do it!” Tina rejoiced. “And let’s start with Billa from the flat next to ours!”

“Your Billa doesn’t need anyone’s protection,” said Kamal sternly. “We need to expose the cases of maltreatment of animals.”

“How we can verify it?” asked Bina

“We’ll go from door to door,” explained Kamal. “You both start with the apartments in Block 1, and I’ll check Block 2. And if you happen to note anyone treating animals badly, we’ll immediately write a letter about him and send it to the newspaper.”

“Right!” said Bina. “Come on, Tina”.

“Good day! Do you have pets in the house?” was the question they asked in each flat with.

“Yes,” they said in the fifth apartment. “We have a parrot.”

“Do you feed it?” inquired the girls.

“Of course!”

“Did you ever beat it?”

“What nonsense! Who beats the parrots? Look at you!”

“And do you take it for a walk?”

“Oh, yes! Regularly, on a long leash,” laughed the residents of the fifth apartment. “It seems you, girls have a lot of idle time, touring the building and asking people such silly questions!”

“No way! We are protecting the animals! If you ever hurt your parrot, we’ll take an action and report it to the authorities!”

“Are you threatening us! We can’t even think about hurting the parrot! Oh, goodness, from where did you pop up?”

The ring to the 13th door was attended by a chubby boy, who looked a fifth grader and who confirmed that there lived a cat and four kittens in his flat.

“So, do you feed your cat?” the girls opened the questionnaire.

“What?” the boy asked in astonishment.

“I ask whether you feed your cat.” Bina repeated the question.

“It’s none of your business,” the boy said angrily.

“It’s very much our business! Cats must be well nourished, for your information! And the kittens, either!” said the girls.

“Really?” the fifth-grader rounded his eyes. “I did not know! Thanks for sharing!”

“You are welcome! And do you beat them?” asked Tina.

“I do, in fact. With a stick. Mostly in the early hours of the morning,” snorted the chunky, and then hustled the girls out of the flat and slammed the door.

“Jerk!” stated Tina. “Who’d have thought! Looking so intelligent in those spectacles … ”

Through the closed door of the 31st apartment a woeful whine of a dog attracted their attention. No one answered the bell.

“Locked up alone,” said Bina, her ear still on the door. “Poor dog! He might be so hungry! We’ll have to come here again to feed him.”

In the 40th flat there lived a huge Alsatian. When the hostess opened the door, it stepped outside and started nosing the girls.

“Ouch!” Tina pleaded, casting a fearful glance at the dog. “Please, take it away, it’ll bite me.”

“How can I help you, dolls?” asked the hostess.

“No no, thank you! We got the wrong door! Ugh … just for record … did you ever offend your dog?” asked Tina.

“No way! Stella is a very smart dog, she already won two medals!” replied the hostess.

“Thank you very much,” said the girls and left hurriedly.

“What’s the progress?” asked Jamal, when they finally met in the yard. “Did you protect somebody?”

“No,” said the girls. “Perhaps we’ll get the chance in other block.”

“Me too,” Jamal hung his head. “Bad luck. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get lucky!”

“Biiinaaa! Tiiinaaa!” called Aunt Sofia from the window. “Come home right away!”

“Where have you been? I’ve been screaming for an hour!” she said angrily, when her daughters appeared at the door. “Once you are out of the house, you get so careless and completely ignore all your responsibilities! You are ready to remain outdoors till the very dusk, whereas your canaries are unfed from the morning! And their cage is so foul! And when was the last time you’ve changed the water in the aquarium, huh? And who will bring the fresh sand for the turtle nest, me again? It’s been three days now since I asked you, girls, but you are so slapdash! Don’t you have a pity for those speechless creatures! Truly, your hearts are barren of kindness, you ruthless children!” she disapprovingly shook her head and left for the kitchen.