Mivelly Mouse And The Pumpkin Seeds
A Story For the young,
and the young at heart
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In which Mivelly is sent out to the pumpkin fields to retrieve seeds for Thanksgiving dinner.
On a crisp and nippy morning, as the sunshine sparkled off of the frosty window in Mivelly's room, the little mouse lay in bed pretending to be asleep. From downstairs he could hear the rattle and clang of the kettles and frying pans as his mother worked away in the kitchen, preparing a feast.
Tomorrow was Thanksgiving Day, and all the relatives were coming, and when you're a mouse, that means a LOT of relatives! There were even rumors going around that great Uncle Sullivan might show up, but no one could be sure of anything that had to do with him.
"Mivelly!" His mother called from downstairs, "It's time to get up."
Mivelly sighed a deep little sigh, and poked one toe out from underneath the covers. His eyes flew wide open as he drew that toe back under the covers in an instant! The temperature had dropped significantly over night, and Mivelly's toes didn't appreciate the change.
"Hurry up Mivelly, we've got a lot to do today!" His mother called again.
Mivelly knew he must obey his mother. So he took a deep breath, braced himself, and flung the covers over. In the same motion, he jumped out of bed, and put on his slippers, to protect his toes from the ice cold floor. He shivered a little, and unbuttoned his pajama's reaching instinctively for his favorite red shirt. His hand grasped only air. Mivelly blinked, and looked at the bed post where he'd draped the shirt the night before. There was nothing there.
With another deep sigh, he opened his dresser drawer, careful to open the one that contained his other clothes, and not the one that housed his personal collection of beetles. After all, he didn't want them to escape again. Selecting a maroon shirt, he slipped it on, and after making absolutely sure that he'd tucked the tag in, he scampered down stairs to the kitchen.
Mama smiled at Mivelly, and set a bowl of oatmeal, and a glass of milk on the table.
"Eat heartily, Mivelly." She said, "I've got a very important mission for you today."
Mivelly plunked down in the chair, bowed his head, and thanked God for the food as best he could. You see, Mivelly didn't particularly care for oatmeal, so it was a bit harder to really be as thankful as he thought he should. Nonetheless, he did his best. He took his spoon and stirred the goop round in his bowl. Then he scooped up a big spoonful and watched it plop, plop, plop back into the bowl.
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"Mivelly, you have to eat it, and the sooner the better." Mama said, as she whipped cream with her whisk. "It won't taste any better cold."
"I wish it was pancakes." Mivelly mumbled.
"What was that?" Mama asked.
"Nothing" Mivelly mumbled.
"Mivelly, you will speak clearly. What did you say?"
Mivelly slumped down below the edge of the table till just his eyes and the top of his ears were peeking out.
"I said I wish it was pancakes." He whispered.
"Louder, and sit up straight and tall." Mama commanded.
Mivelly obeyed reluctantly.
"I said I wish it was pancakes."
"I see." Mama smiled. "Do you know why I made oatmeal this morning?"
"No." Mivelly sulked.
"I made oatmeal, because it's easy, and I have to make a lot of other food to get ready for tomorrows feast." Mama explained. "So it would be really kind of you to eat your breakfast without complaining, okay?"
Mivelly nodded quietly and shoveled one spoonful of oatmeal after another into his mouth, until the bowl was empty.
Then he took his bowl and spoon to the sink and rinsed the bowl as best he could.
"Thank you for the breakfast, Mama." He smiled.
"You're welcome." Mama smiled back. "Finish your milk, and then I'll tell you what your mission is."
Mivelly slid the glass off the table and finished the last few gulps as he crossed to the kitchen sink. He rinsed the cup, and set it on the counter with his bowl and spoon.
"What's the mission?" He asked.
"I need you to take your wagon and find as many pumpkin seeds as you can." Mama said. "I'm going to roast them for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Do you think you can do that for me?"
Mivelly licked his lips, and nodded his head vigorously. Roasted pumpkin seeds were one of his favorites.
"I know just the place!" He squeaked in excitement, as he ran off to find his shoes.
It was not so cold as Mivelly had first thought that morning, as he stepped outside and headed round the back of the house to fetch his wagon. The sunshine, casting it's golden glow, had melted the frost, and now shone brightly through the colored leaves of the maples and poplars that grew tall alongside the nearby bubbling stream.
With his wagon rumbling along behind, Mivelly set out toward the pumpkin patch on the other side of the meadow. In spite of the oatmeal breakfast, he was in good spirits and hummed a little tune that he made up as he went. The bumblejackets, buzzing from flower to flower, seemed to hum along with him.
"Today's gonna be a good day!" He said, to no one in particular. "Even the bumblejackets are happy!" In spite of their happy humming, Mivelly couldn't help but shiver a bit at the thought of the stinger laden mood swings these insects were notorious for.
The meadow folk were all out and about, getting ready for their own Thanksgiving celebrations.
"Good morning!" Mivelly nodded and smiled at Mr. Earl M. Turtle, as he waited for him to cross the path, and tried not to tap his foot with impatience.
Mr. Earl stopped, slowly turned his head, smiled, and nodded back to Mivelly.
"Good morning to you." He said slowly.
Then he started across the second half of the path. As Mivelly waited, he heard from behind him scuttling paws, and the labored breathing of one Fabio Marcellus Hedgehog.
"Hi Mivelly!" Fabio shouted as he ran up beside the wagon. "What are you doing out here?"
"I'm going to the pumpkin patch." Mivelly replied.
"Wow!" Fabio exclaimed. "How are you going to bring back a whole pumpkin?"
Mr. Earl had finished crossing the path, and Mivelly started on his way again. Fabio scuttled along beside him.
"I'm not going to bring a pumpkin home,"Mivelly started.
"Then why are you going to the pumpkin patch?" Fabio looked profoundly confused.
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"I'm going to get pumpkin seeds so that mama can roast them for tomorrows feast." Mivelly explained.
"Oooooooh." Fabio said. "I've never had roasted pumpkin seeds before."
"They're the best!" Mivelly smiled, licking his lips again.
"How are you going to get the seeds out of the pumpkin?" Fabio asked.
"I'll have to figure that out." Mivelly replied. "Sometimes, there's already an open pumpkin up there."
"Can I come along and help you?" Fabio asked.
"If you want to." Mivelly answered. "But it might be hard work."
"Oh, it won't be that bad." Fabio grinned. "Plus, maybe we can ride your wagon down the hill."
"Just so long as we don't take too long to harvest the seeds." Mivelly said. "I'm pretty sure Mama wants them as soon as possible."
"We'll only ride down a couple of times." Fabio said.
The two friends started up the side of the hill to where the pumpkins grew at the top. Half way up Mivelly asked.
"Could you help push the wagon?"
"Sure." Fabio said, running around behind. "You ready?"
"Yep." Mivelly said.
By the time they got to the top of the hill, Fabio was huffing and puffing profusely! Mivelly took one look at his friend and asked,
"Are you okay?"
Fabio held up one finger as he attempted to catch his breath and then replied between huffs and puffs,
"Hedgehogs are made to scuttle, not push. I just need to catch my breath."
With this, he sat down in the grass where he was. Presently, the puffing stopped, and then too the huffing, and Fabio was back to normal. He jumped up and scuttled over to a gigantic pumpkin that was perched right on the edge of the hill.
"Look at this one!" He exclaimed. "This has got to be the very best pumpkin ever!"
"I don't know about..." Mivelly started, but Fabio put his finger up to his lip, and said,
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." His eyes grew wider as he whispered, "It's the very best pumpkin ever."
"Okay then." Mivelly said. "Whatever you say. Should we ride the wagon down the hill?"
"Absolutely!" Fabio shouted, and scuttled as fast as he could to the wagon. "Aaaaaaaaaallllll aboaaaaaaaaard!" He shouted again. "The wagon express is leaving now!"
Mivelly pushed the wagon around so that it faced down the hill and jumped in. Fabio hoisted himself up and settled in behind Mivelly.
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"Let's gooooooo!" He shouted.
Nothing happened.
"I don't think we're close enough to the edge." Mivelly said.
"Maybe if we shake the wagon, we'll get it to go." Fabio offered. "If we both shake at the same time it should work."
"Okay, on three." Mivelly said. "One, two, three!"
Mivelly lurched forward. Fabio lunged backward. Both of them fell out of the wagon.
"I think we need to go in the same direction at the same time." Mivelly said, moving the wagon even closer to the edge of the hill.
"Yeah, good idea." Fabio grinned a sheepish little grin as he plucked dried leaves from his prickles. "Let's go forward first."
As they climbed back into the wagon, it nearly started rolling right away. Again, Mivelly counted to three, and this time they both lurched forward. The wagon moved a little, and then paused like a table knife teetering on the edge of a drinking glass. Just then, a gnat buzzed right up Fabio's nostril! He scrunched up his nose, wiggled it around and then sneezed ferociously!
The wagon shifted forward, and began to roll down the hill.
"Weeee!" Shouted Mivelly.
"Yesss!" Screamed the ecstatic Fabio!
"Gross." buzzed one unfortunate and disoriented gnat.
The wagon quickly picked up speed, as Mivelly and Fabio zoomed past sticks, rocks and pine cones, hurdling toward the meadow below.
"This is the best day of my life!" Fabio shouted.
The ground leveled out, and the wagon slowed to a stop. Mivelly was about to suggest that they ride down the hill again when from beneath the wagon, there came a mumbling fizzling buzzing noise. And the noise grew louder with every passing moment.
Mivelly looked at Fabio. Fabio looked at Mivelly. The both looked down underneath the wagon.
"Bumblejackets!" They shouted in unison.