All summer long Alec waited and watched as the watermelons grew on the vines. At first they were just marble-sized, but each week they grew bigger until they were ten times the size of the mouse.

Alec often nibbled on squash, or bits of carrot that he dug up from the earth, but nothing tasted as good as the watermelon.

“Tomorrow it will be ripe and ready to eat.” He rubbed his tummy and fell asleep in his burrow. The summer sun no longer shone as warm and bright and instead, cool air blew, turning the leaves orange and red. Alec pulled his blanket up and wrapped himself tight. In the morning he patted his tummy. “Today’s the day. I get to eat all the watermelon I want. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

He crawled out of his burrow and ran over to the watermelon patch. “Where are they? All the watermelon are gone.” He ran about, searching the vines and under leaves. “Yikes! Someone stole all my watermelon.”

Alec started sniffing the air. “I can smell it.” He followed the scent and found a group of people sitting on a blanket and eating slices of juicy watermelon. A pout spread across his face and his eyes filled with tears. “There’s none for me.”

He walked back towards his burrow, his tail dragging on the ground. He wandered through the pumpkin patch and ran his fingers across the huge orange balls. He spotted something lying behind a pumpkin. Suddenly his eyes lit up. “It can’t be. Is that a watermelon?” He ran over to it. “It is! It’s small, but it’s all mine.” He pulled it from the vine and rolled it across the ground towards his burrow. Using his sharp teeth he bit it to pieces. He sat on a mound of dirt and gobbled down each piece. “Ah, at last I get my watermelon. It might only be one, but it sure tastes good.”