Chips Finds a Friend

Chapter One

In the Blackberry Forest, there lived a rabbit named Chips. He lived with his mom and dad in a cozy hole near a big patch of clover. He was lonely because there were no other rabbits living in his section of the forest. There were many other kinds of animals and a lot of bugs, but there was no one that he could play with during the long summer days.

He always left the bugs alone, but he sometimes tried to find a friend among the other animals. He never had much luck with this because the other animals were just so different from him.

When some neighboring birds were babies and their nests were built low in the bushes, he did enjoy playing with them. They would stay in their nests, and Chips would bring them interesting objects he found in the forest such as flowers, acorns, pinecones, and twigs. The birds would chirp excitely when they saw the treasures. However, the birds would stay babies for such a short time. Soon they would fly away, and they would tell Chips that they could find more interesting objects while flying up through the trees and that they could no longer stay on the ground playing with him.

Once he tried playing with a snake name Sammy, but Sammy could not hop like Chips. Instead he would slither into tiny holes in the ground and disappear for hours.

Sammy would complain about Chip's desire to hop around. He would say, "It's silly to hop. I will play with you if you slide on your tunny like I do."

Poor Chips would tried slithering on his tummy. He sure looked silly and it felt very uncomfortable.

Sammy said, "I'm sorry, Chips, but you just cannot do it correctly. You won't be able to go underneath the rocks and stones and slide through the tunnels I find. I don't think we can play together anymore."

After that, Chips hopped over to Silver Stream. In the crystal clear water, he saw a fish named Cindy.

"May I play with you?" asked Chips.

"You'll have to come into the water and swim with me. I cannot come up onto the land. I cannot breath up there," she replied.

"Well, I don't think I can swim too well, but I can hop. Hopping is a lot of fun, but I cannot find anyone who can hop like me."

"I think you can try hopping in the water. Why don't you try it?"

Chips jumped into the stream and began hopping. Boy, did he make a lot of noise. Water splashed all over! Cindy did not like the splashing, so he quickly swam away.

When Chips hopped out of the water, he looked for Cindy, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He felt so bad that he went into the clover and pouted.

As he sat in the green clover, he noticed a large bug

"Go away, stupid bug!" he cried.

The bug, whose name was Charley, said, "Okay, Grumpy," and he started to hop away.

"Hey, " exclaimed Chips. "I didn't know bugs could hop."

"Sure they can if they are grasshoppers."

"I can hop too," said Chips. He began hopping around in the patch of clover. "How far can you hop?"

"Probably no quite as far as you can, but I can jump over that log," answered Charley.

"Let's see," said Chips.

Charley hopped and made it over the log.

"Hey, I bet I can even hop over you," said Charley.

Chips stood still as Charley jumped right over his head.

Chips said excitedly, "Let's see if we can jump over this big mud puddle."

"It looks awfully big to me," said Charley.

It was a big puddle, but they both were daring, so in the count of three they hopped. They did not hop far enough, so they landed right in the middle of the mud. They sat there for a moment, and then laughed as they saw how they were both completely covered in mud.

"I guess we will have to practice if we want to hop across such big things," said Charley.

"Does that mean you would like to be my friend so we can practice together?" asked Chips.

"Sure, if you don't mind being friends with a bug," answered Charley.

Chips decided he definitely did not mind because he finally found a friend who could hop just like he did.