Snow

Chapter Twelve

The leaves in the Blackberry Forest had turned bright red, yellow, and orange. Many of them had already fallen to the ground, and Chips and Charley spent their days making big piles of leaves and hopping into them.

William was angry that Chips insisted that he would continue to be friends with Charley. He told Chips that he should know better than to play with a bug, but Chips refused to listen. So William spent the fall days playing by himself.

One morning, late in the fall, Chips woke up sensing that there was something different and special in the forest that day. He could not figure out what it could be. It just felt new and exciting. As he was getting dressed, he heard Charley come into his house.

"Isn't Chips up yet?" he heard Charley ask from the other room.

"I think he is getting up now," answered Chips' mom.

"I am up, Charley," Chips shouted. "There is something special happening today, isn't there? I can feel it."

As Chips walked into the room where Charley and his mom were talking, he received the answer right away."

"Snow!"

Chips and Charley hurried through, breakfast, and then hopped outside.

The forest was beautiful. A crisp fresh whiteness was everywhere. The ground, the bushes, the trees were all covered with snow. The sun was shining softly, and there was a light snowfall.

"It's wonderful," whispered Chips.

"Yes," said Charley. "What shall we do first?"

They looked at each other, smiled, and then headed to Roly-Poly Hill.

On their way, they saw Grumpy Gopher standing at his door grumbling about all the snow he now had to shovel to keep the path to his house clear.

"Hi Grumpy. Isn't this snow wonderful?" asked Chips.

"Wonderful? Yeah, it's wonderfully heavy. I suppose you two are going to have fun in it?"

"Yes" they called as they ran up the hill.

On their way up the hill, they saw Carl and Sarah up in the the trees. The squirrels had to climb in the branches carefully since the snow made them slippery. They smiled at Chips and Charley and sent a sprinkling of snow onto them as they passed.

When they were on the top of Roly-Poly Hill, Chips and Charley found the steepest spot, got on their backs, and slid down the hill.

"Wheee!"they yelled.

Once they were at the bottom, they hopped back up and started down the hill again. It was such fun!

Meanwhile, William was also happy to see the snow. He had been pretty bored, and the snow would give him new things to do. He started to make a snowbunny, but it was a lot of work for one rabbit. He then started to throw snowballs at the trees, but it was not anywhere near as fun as throwing them at friends in a snowball fight. He then decided to hop around and see what the snow was like in other parts of the forest.

He was near Roly-Poly Hill when he heard the happy shouts of Chips and Charley. He hopped over to where he could watch them sliding down the hill. It sure looked like fun.

He was feeling very sad and lonely. He wanted to join Chips and Charley, but he still did not want to be friends with a bug.

Charley found a way to spin as he slid down the hill. He did this by starting out sideways and moving his arms and legs as he want down the hill.

"Charley is pretty creative, and he sure knows how to have fun," William thought to himself.

Now Charley was doing somersaults down the hill.

William laughed and thought, "Wow, I would like to try that."

After that Charley made a little tunnel and show Chips how they could slide through it as they were going down the hill.

"It actually might be fun to be friends with Charley. Maybe bugs aren't so bad after all," William decided.

He hopped over to Chips and Charley, and asked if he could join them.

"Sure, if you don't mind sliding down the hill with a bug," replied Charley.

William smile and said. "No, I don't mind. It's no fun playing by myself, and you two sure know how to have fun. I would like to be friends with both of you."

They all hopped up the hill and slid down together.

Charley was so happy, he decided to sing the following song:

Magic winter
Special snow
Sliding fast as we can go
Sharing laughter with a friend
Let's hope the good times never end.