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Autumn was in the air. The nights
were crisp and the midnight sky was clear. The stars twinkled and sparkled
and the moon was full and bright. Periwinkle Glen was ablaze with color.
The leaves on all the trees were turning different shades of reds,
oranges, yellows and browns. Marigold, a tiny fairy, was playing with her
friend, Grasshopper. They were jumping over stones. Grasshopper always won
as he could jump higher and further than Marigold, but she had fun trying.
"You always jump higher than me, Grasshopper, but there are a lot of
things that I can do good too. I can kiss the buttercups and open the
rosebuds," she laughed.
Grasshopper jumped as far as he
could and landed in a pile of golden leaves. They’d fallen from an oak
tree. "I can do that too," Marigold shouted, but instead of jumping, she
flew and landed next to Grasshopper. She started laughing and rolling
about in the leaves.
"Let’s play a game of hide and seek.
You count to ten and I’ll hide," she said. Grasshopper shut his eyes and
Marigold hid. She ran behind a stone and tucked her orange dress and wings
behind her. She bent her head down. Her dark brown hair touched the
ground. She giggled as she heard Grasshopper jumping around looking for.
BOING! BOING! BOING! She lifted her head and peeked. Just then,
Grasshopper landed on the stone, right in front of Marigold. "You found
me," she smiled.
"It’s my turn to count. You hide and
I’ll find you," she said. Grasshopper hopped over to a hollow tree trunk
and jumped inside. "Here I come," Marigold called out and started
searching for her friend. She looked behind the oak tree. She looked under
the stone. She parted the tall, waving blades of grass and looked.
Grasshopper was nowhere to be found. "I wonder where he is hiding?" She
heard a noise. It sounded like Grasshopper’s giggle. She ran over to the
tree trunk and peeked inside. "There you are. I found you," she called.
Grasshopper jumped out of the tree
trunk. "It’s my turn to hide now," Marigold said. This time she was going
to make sure Grasshopper couldn’t find her. He counted and she ran over to
a pile of leaves. She searched for some that were orange-colored, like her
dress, and pulled them on top of her. Soon she heard Grasshopper hopping
about looking for her. BOING! BOING! BOING! "He’ll never find me," she
giggled softly.
Grasshopper couldn’t find her. In
fact he looked for so long that Marigold ended up falling asleep under the
leaves. Grasshopper tired of looking and hopped down to the stream to get
a drink of water and rested on a stem of a sunflower.
A while later, Marigold woke up. "He
still hasn’t found me," she thought, She had no idea how long she’d been
sleeping for. "I’m here," she said, lifting the leaves off her.
"Grasshopper? Grasshopper? Where are you?" she wondered. She yawned and
stretched and went looking for her friend. She found him down at the
stream. "There you are. You were supposed to be looking for me, not me
looking for you," she said. Grasshopper hopped off the sunflower stem and
landed next to Marigold. "I’m tired of playing hide and seek. Let’s go and
find something to eat now," she said and flew off towards the woods.
Grasshopper hopped behind her. It had been a fun day for them both. |
