Bean and Nut Soup

Chapter Ten

Carl, the squirrel, and his little sister, Sarah, were playing in the trees. They were leaping from branch to branch and giggling as they knocked leaves and nuts onto the ground. Below them, Grumpy Gopher was in his front yard working in his garden. He looked up at them and shook his finger.

"Now don't you go knocking nuts into my garden. Go play somewhere else!" he yelled.

Carl and Sarah scurried along the tree branches and eventually worked their way back to Grumpy's backyard. They noticed another gopher near Grumpy's house. This gopher was Grumpy's cousein, Archie, who was visiting for a week. He was cooking a soup in a big pot above a fire. Carl and Sarah were curious to see what type of soup he was cooking, so they stopped to rest and snoop on Archie.

"What do you think he is cooking?" asked Sarah.

"It's some kind of soup. It sure doesn't smell too good," replied Carl.

"He's putting beans into it. Yuck, I don't like bean soup."

"Yeah," said Carl. "I'm glad we don't have to eat it."

Archie was adding parsley to the soup and saying to himself, "I better add the correct amount of parsley: one, two, three pinches. I hope Grumpy will like this soup. I make the best soup going, but he's so fussy. Oh dear, I forgot the pepper. Now where is it? I must have left it in the kitchen."

He went into Grumpy's house. Carl and Sarah were ready to play again, so they took off into the trees. The branches shook wildly, and nuts and leaves flew all over the place. Many nuts fell right into the soup!

After some time, Archie came back out and added the pepper to the soup. He then started to stir the soup.

"Hmm...the soup smells strange. Hey, there's something lumpy in here!"

He scooped some of the soup out and saw that there were nuts in there. He looked around angrily.

"Who put nuts into my bean soup? They ruined it! Whoever played this awful trick is in big trouble!"

Just then Charley hopped into the yard.

"Hello Grumpy. Oh, I am sorry. You are not Grumpy. Who are you?"

"You! You did it didn't you? Why you rotten little bug!" Archie shouted. He waved his spoon and started running toward Charley.

Charley did not know why the gopher was so angry, but he sure wasn't going to stay to find out. He started running away as quickly as he he could.

Archie chased Charley all the way up Roly-Poly Hill. At the top of the hill, he grabbed Charley by his rear legs. He hung poor Charley in the air and shouted at him.

"I am a great cook and you ruined my bean soup! How dare you! This is an outrage!"

"Now wait a minute," cried Charley. "I didn't..."

Charly stopped when he saw Carl and Sarah in the branches above him. They looked very frightened. They realized what had happened, and they had followed Charley up the hill.

Archie saw Charley look up, and he looked up too and saw they squirrels.

"Now wait a minute. You two are the culprits! Come down here, and I will tan your hides."

Poor Carl and Sarah were so scared that they were shaking.

Charely said," No, they're not. I put the nuts into your soup. I'm very sorry. It was an accident."

"You rotten little bug. I should put you into the soup!"

"That would make it even worse tasting," Charley argued. "Why don't you let me help you cook another soup?"

"You! You couldn't help me. You are just a stupid bug. I suppose you don't realize that I am a famous cook. That soup was a special secret recipe. It has to be done just right. What do you know? Maybe I'll just pull off all of yoiur legs!"

Poor Charley was very scared. How could he get out of this?

Just then Grumpy walked up the hill to where Archie and Charley were.

"Hey, Archie, I though I heard you. I want to tell you that your soup tastes delicious. Bean and nut soup. Who would have thought of it? Hey, what are you doing to Charley?"

"Ah, oh. You tasted my soup?"

"Yes, it's the best soup I ever had."

Archie bragged, "Oh, yes. It's my special recipe. Yes...you don't get soup better than I make it."

"But what are you doing to Charley?"

"Oh...Charley...yes, I was trying to help him into the tree to play with the squirrels. Well, I guess I cannot reach high enough, Charley, my friend. You'll have to play somewhere else."

He put Charley back down on the ground.

"Now, Grumpy, I came up with the idea for bean and nut soup just the other day." Archie said as he and Grumpy started down the hill.

"Charley, thank you!" cried Carl. " We didn't mean to knock the nuts into his silly soup. We might have been punished for that."

"You were so brave! That gopher was so mean. We were so scared." cried Sarah.

Charley just waved his arm and smiled. He decided to get back home as soon as he could. All that talk about soup made him hungry!