Fox Owl Story
Herewith, one of the “Fox-Owl Stories” I told my kids when they were young. If you have young kids or grandkids, please recycle it.
‘Pon a time Scott and Beth, Cubby and Ruggles, Mom and Dad were all up at the Big Lake. And Scott and Beth decided to have a Fox-Owl story.
So they went down to the dock and called their animal friends:
“ANIMAL FRIENDS.”
And pretty soon what did Scott and Beth hear from the swamp, the island, the inlet and the haunted forest?
“A scufflement and a flutterment.”
And in came their animal friends. “Hi animal friends,” said Scott and Beth to their animal friends.
“Hi to your own self,” said the animal friends to Scott and Beth.
“Could you like to have a Fox-Owl story?” asked Scott and Beth.
“SURE,” said Mr. Owl and “SURE” Mr. Fox.
But Piglet announced that he first wanted to fly a kite. He had seen Beth’s kite on the back porch and a dusty saltwater fishing reel beside a mouse nest on a cellar shelf.
“Oh, very well,” said Scott and Beth. So they tied the line from the reel to the kite. And they used Dad’s favorite necktie -- the one Mom made Dad wear once at a funeral -- as the kite’s tail.
It was a fine, gusty day -- perfect for kite flying. But before they launched the kite Piglet demanded to ride on it.
“NO,” said Scott and Beth. “That’s out of the question. There is nothing for you to hold onto. And it’s not fair to the other animal friends, most of whom are all too heavy.”
But Mr. Owl, who tries to help but whose attempts sometimes turn out to be clumsy and unhelpful, found Beth’s little plastic bucket half-buried in the sand. He grabbed it in his beak, and flapped over to Scott and Beth.
“SEE!” shouted Piglet.
“Oh, very well,” said Scott and Beth. Scott tied the bucket to Dad’s necktie, and Piglet jumped in, squealing with delight.
The wind carried the kite and Piglet way up over the middle of the Big Lake. Scott, Beth and all the animal friends could still hear Piglet squealing.
But soon his squeals turned to shrieks. Baba had bought the reel in 1947, and since then the line had rotted. It broke, and Piglet sailed higher and higher over the Big Lake until he looked like a mussel larva on the fin of a bass.
Some of the animal friends started to cry. Mr. Pileated Woodpecker launched himself into the air and flew up to the kite. He bit the broken line and started pulling the kite down. But the line broke again. He yelled, and it sounded like he was laughing, but he wasn’t. He was almost as scared as Piglet.
Then Mr. Osprey and Mr. Owl flapped into the air and met Mr. Pileated Woodpecker at the kite. They all grabbed the line, but it broke again.
“Grab Piglet instead,” yelled Scott and Beth. Mr. Pileated Woodpecker, Mr. Osprey and Mr. Owl were too high to hear them, but they are not stupid. So they grabbed the bucket and tore it off Dad’s necktie.
They couldn’t quite lift the bucket with Piglet in it. But they used their wings as parachutes, slowing the descent until the bucket and Piglet splashed into the Big Lake way out beyond Pickerel Rock.
Piglet shrieked even louder because he didn’t know how to swim. But Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat were already racing toward him. Just as Piglet was about to go under, Little Joe Otter grabbed him by the neck and Jerry Muskrat grabbed him by the foot. They dragged him back to the beach.
Piglet was crying because he was scared but also because Little Joe Otter has sharp teeth, and they had cut his neck. Beth was not happy because her kite and bucket were gone. And Dad said a naughty word because his favorite necktie was lost.
But at least Piglet was safe. He stopped crying when Scott and Beth stuffed marshmallows into his mouth and put a Band-Aid adorned with red hearts and blue stars on his neck.
To celebrate, Scott and Beth decided to have a party. So they wrote invitations. And Mr. Owl carried them in a basket all around the swamp, the island, the inlet and the haunted forest, dropping them at the houses of animal friends who hadn’t heard Scott and Beth calling them.
More and more animal friends flew, swam, ran and crawled to the dock. Also, Keewaukum and Chibaukum who, while they weren’t animal friends, were at least Indians.
Scott and Beth served a feast on the front porch. But it took a lot of work because Keewaukum and Chibaukum and each animal friend wanted different kinds of food: Pemmican from an Indian mound that Scott and Beth had to dig up behind Huntington Garden for Keewaukum and Chibaukum; perch fillets from the refrigerator for Little Joe Otter and Mr. Osprey; mussels from under the diving raft for Jerry Muskrat; acorns from the haunted forest and more marshmallows from the kitchen cabinet for Piglet; honeycomb from an old beehive near the Governor’s ruins for Mr. Black Bear; dead mice from traps in the kitchen for Mr. Owl and Mr. Northern Water Snake; non-sour grapes for Mr. Fox; the sweat-soaked handle of a broken canoe paddle for Mr. Porcupine; flies from the compost for Mr. Water Spider, Grandfather Frog, and Mrs. Phoebe; a golden shiner that had been resting on its back for Mr. Clawfish; pine borer beetle larvae from the woodpile for Mr. Pileated Woodpecker; a rotten bluegill from Three Rock Home for Mr. Snapping Turtle; fishing worms from Dad’s boat for Mr. Wood Turtle; snails from the inlet for Mr. Painted Turtle; cranberries from the island bog for Mr. Spotted Turtle; three of Grandfather Frog’s winter-killed pollywog grandchildren for Billy Mink; an aspen sapling from the old clearing for Paddy the Beaver; apples from Disgustos for Johnny Chuck; almonds from the brisker for Mr. Chipmunk and Mr. Gray Squirrel; sunflower seeds from the birdfeeder for Mr. Red Squirrel; green re-frozen, re-thawed ham dillies from ML’s refrigerator for Mr. Turkey Vulture; meal worms from the ham dillies for Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird. And lots of other different stuff for lots of other animal friends.
The Indians and the animal friends got so stuffed with all the food, and Scott and Beth got so tired from finding and serving it that they all went down to the tall grass near the beach. They lay down in the warm July sun. And they all fell fast asleep.