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"I am so hungry that I
could eat a whole elephant!" Ian said.
Mac began to laugh. "That’s
pretty hungry, Ian. I take it you want to go and find something to nibble
on?"
"Oh yes. Earlier today,
when we were down near the village, I heard Jock McTavish saying that he
was having a party this evening. That means lots of leftovers going out to
the rubbish. Yum," Ian said, licking his lips.
"Well then, off to Jock’s
house we go," Mac said. The raccoons climbed down the tree and headed
toward his house. The sun had set several hours ago and it was a dark
night. There was no moon and clouds hid the stars. "Say, Ian, doesn’t Jock
have a beautiful flower garden? I’ve heard its his pride and joy."
"He does. I’ve seen the
garden. It’s filled with roses the size of melons, begonias, peonies and
chrysanthemums. It’s absolutely beautiful!" Ian replied.
"Too bad we’ll not see them
tonight. It’s too dark. Come on. We’re almost there. Be careful hopping
over the stone wall," Mac cautioned.
"Wow! Look at all this
food!" Ian smiled. Without saying another word, he began to eat the
leftover stovies, cold sausages, pork and beans, half eaten slices of
bread with butter on them.
"Make room for me," Mac
said. "I’m hungry too!" He ate a few pieces of chocolate cake with thick,
rich, chocolaty icing. "I love cold pizza," he said, pushing a slice into
his mouth. "Ian, it’s not an elephant, but this food is delicious anyway!"
Mac laughed.
"Hey! Raccoons in my
garbage? Get out of here!" Jock screamed. He threw a stone at the
raccoons.
"What? What’s going on
here?" Ian asked, angry at being disturbed during his feast. He climbed
out of the trashcan and looked up.
"I said get out of here.
Leave my rubbish alone!" Jock said loudly.
He threw another stone. It
hit Ian on the leg. "OUCH!" he cried.
Mac ran over and helped Ian
out of the trashcan. "Come on, Ian. We’d better get out of here before
Jock hits us with another stone. They climbed over the wall and ran into
the woods.
"And don’t you come back!"
Jock called after them. He went inside and shut the door.
"Mac, I was enjoying a
sausage. There was so much food in there. Why doesn’t he just let us eat
it instead of it rotting? Why did he throw a stone? He’s not very nice,"
Ian sighed, rubbing his sore leg.
"No, he’s not. I didn’t get
to finish my pizza either. We’ll have to get even with him for this.
Normally I’m not a revengeful raccoon, but that was uncalled for," Mac
said. He thought for several moments and then added, "Ah. I’ve got an
idea."
"What? What is it, Mac? Are
we going to tie him up and leave him for the bears to eat?" Ian said.
"No. That’s not nice. I’ll
tell you in the morning. Get some sleep and before the sun rises, you’ll
find out," Mac snickered.
The sky was beginning to
redden when Mac woke up. He had a huge, devilish grin on his face. "Ian,
wake up. It’s time to go."
Ian yawned. "It’s still
dark outside."
"I know, but its time to
put our plan into action," Mac reminded.
"Oh yes. Jock McTavish,"
Ian said, rubbing his leg.
"Come on, but be quiet. If
he catches us again, he’ll do more than toss a rock at us…"
They ran through the woods
and climbed quietly over the wall. "What are we going to do, Mac?" Ian
whispered.
"Follow me," Mac urged.
They walked into the flower garden. "Start picking the petals off every
single flower. Jock’s prize garden won’t be so prized in the morning. Hee
hee."
"Put the petals in this
bag," Mac said.
"I didn’t see you carrying
a bag," Ian said, surprised.
"It’s dark, Ian. How could
you? Trust me, just put the petals in here," Mac said, handing the bag to
Ian.
They picked every rose
petal, every peony petal, every marigold and every other petal they could
find. "Smells kind of nice here. I like the scent of flowers," Ian said.
"It smells nice right now,
but there will be nothing to smell in a few minutes. Hee hee," Mac
chuckled. They finished picking the flowers. "Now, let’s hide over there,
behind the wood pile and when Jock comes out to water his flowers, well,
we’ll see if he likes that!"
Ian carried the bag of
petals and they hid. A few minutes later the back door opened. "There he
is," Ian said, raising his head above the logs.
"Be careful not to let him
see you," Mac said. He looked too. "Hee hee. Hee hee."
"Where are my flowers?"
Jock screamed at the top of his lungs. "Who stole my flowers?"
"Hee hee. Hee hee," Ian
laughed. "That’ll teach him to throw rocks at us!"
Jock stood, staring at his
flower garden. "My flowers," he sighed. He looked very sad.
Ian and Mac stopped
giggling. They saw how sad Jock looked. "I feel bad," Ian said, frowning.
Suddenly it didn’t seem so funny any more.
"I feel bad too," Mac
added. "I was so mad at him for throwing rocks at us and making us leave
all that good food behind that I thought this would make us feel better.
But it made us feel worse." Mac looked at the bag of petals. The two
raccoons slinked back to the tree and didn’t speak a word all day. Both of
them thought of how sad Jock looked that morning.
"I’ve got an idea," said
Ian, jumping up and down on the branch. "We can’t give him back his flower
petals, but we can do something good for him." They spent the next few
hours crushing the petals into small pieces. Ian ran down the tree and
came back later with some mosquito netting and some string. They ripped
the netting up with their claws and made little bags, tied neatly with the
string. "There. Now he’s got potpourri. His house will smell like flowers
all year long."
"Good idea, Ian. Let’s take
this to his house and leave it on the porch," Mac said. They waited until
the sun set and it was dark. "Put them here," Mac said softly. They set
the potpourri bags down, knocked on the door and ran.
Jock opened the door and
looked down. "What’s this?" he said, picking the small bags up. "My roses!
My peonies! My flowers!" He took them inside.
"Hee hee. This feels much
better, doesn’t it? I get a warm fuzzy feeling to do something nice for
someone, don’t you?" Mac asked Ian.
"I feel good. Let’s go
home. I’m tired," Ian said.
After a few weeks, all the
flowers were back on the bushes. The roses seemed prettier as did all the
other flowers. Ian and Mac often took walks past Jock McTavish’s house,
but never again did they pick his flowers or get into his rubbish. |
