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Two
bunnies, two bears, two chicks, a cow, a cat and a mouse all lived
together in a field next to an apple orchard. Every spring when the apple
trees blossomed, the animals danced around with excitement knowing that in
a few months, lots of big, red, juicy apples would hang from branches over
the fence. Some would even fall to the ground in the field.
Before
the first blossom, Mr. Winesap walked over to the fence. He looked at the
animals in the field and then at the apples trees. The animals watched in
horror as he cut all the lower branches off, gathered them in a pile and
carried them away.
“Oh no,”
cried the cow. “Now we'll never get to eat the apples.”
As spring
passed the flowers blossomed and in the summer the leaves grew large and
green and tiny apples appeared. By autumn the apples were huge and red and
looked oh so juicy.
The cat,
being the wisest of all the animals in the field had an idea. “Let's make
a pyramid. If some of us climb on each other's backs or stand on each
other's shoulders, we could reach some of those apples.”
The cow
moved as close to the fence as he could. One of the bears climbed on its
back. The other bear climbed up and then one of the rabbits and the mouse.
“I can reach!” The mouse plucked an apple and handed it to the rabbit, who
passed it to the bear, who passed it to the other bear, who handed it to
the other rabbit, who put it in the basket.
They did
this over and over again until the basket was full. “That was a good
idea,” the mouse said to the cat.
They sat
on the grass and gobbled all the apples, wiping the juice from their
chins. “I love apples,” said the chicks.
“Me too,”
said the others. |
