In the excitement of chasing the turtle - nipping at him
and dancing in circles, Mr. Fox hadn’t noticed just how close to the pond he
was getting.
Larry, although a very slow turtle, had
been chased by foxes before. He knew to
keep making his way to the water and he could easily slip down to the bottom of
the pond and be safe, for he had never seen a fox at the bottom of the pond.
Watching all of this from two branches
up, Wendy Crow flicked her long, black tail and cheered Larry on with raspy
caws.
At the water’s edge Larry quickly
slipped below the surface, stretched out his legs and swam between the reeds to
the safety of the murky bottom.
Well, you can imagine his surprise at
seeing four fox feet paddling just overhead.
He couldn’t believe it. That
crazy fox had followed him into the water and was now trying his best to swim
down to the bottom.
Unlike the turtle, however, Mr. Fox
couldn’t get himself below the surface.
He floated, no matter how much he kicked and tried to swim, he stayed on
the surface of the pond. He was getting
very frustrated and was quickly starting to wear himself out.
Just across the pond swam Nancy and
Wanda, two young ducks. Wanda, at
noticing a fox just across the way swimming in circles said to Nancy, “If he learns to swim in a straight line
we could be in trouble.”
But
Nancy didn’t hear Wanda’s comment as she kept plunging headfirst down to the
tasty reeds.
Although being entertained by all of
this, Wendy Crow noticed a slight look of panic in Mr. Fox. She soon realized that he wasn’t still trying
to chase Larry, he was trying to get back to shore, and wasn’t having any luck.
In her loudest voice ever, Wendy sent
out a distress caw. “Help! Help!" she cried.
From across the lake the two ducks
conferred.
“What does she expect us to do?” asked Nancy.
“We should do something to help.” Wanda replied, but Nancy had already dove back down for another
bite of food.
Mr. Fox was quickly becoming
exhausted. He was trying hard to keep
his head above the water, but his wet heavy fur and his tired legs were slowing
him down.
As he was swimming in small circles,
every few seconds he could see the close shoreline. Oh, he thought, if I had only been paying
attention I…
But suddenly he didn’t have to swim
anymore. Something was pushing him up
out of the water.
His legs were hanging free while some
mighty force was pushing up on his stomach.
If he had not been so frightened he would have enjoyed the ride.
Whatever it was, it was helping him back
to the shore. When he was close enough
for his feet to touch the bottom, he made a running motion with them. As his claws dug into the bottom, he quickly
pulled himself free and up onto the grass.
He lay there trying to catch his
breath. He wanted to shake the pond
water from his fur, but he was too tired to stand. The warm sun felt good and soon Mr. Fox was
sound asleep.
“That was mighty nice of you.” Wendy
said to Larry, as he turned to go back into the pond.
“We have to help each other.” Larry
said. “When it comes right down to it, each other is all we have. Your part was
calling for help. When I heard the panic
in your voice, I knew Mr. Fox wasn’t still chasing me, he was trying to save
himself.”
Wendy said, “I didn’t see those two
over there helping at all.”
Larry looked over at the two ducks
across the pond.
“Some
of us help by just staying out of the way.” Larry replied, and with that, he
slipped back into the cool pond water and disappeared down to the bottom.
Wendy hopped up to a higher branch. She was getting hungry for some fresh
berries, and really did not want to be hanging around when Mr. Fox finally woke
up.
He can just go through life thinking it
was a miracle that saved him, she thought, and maybe that’s what miracles are,
just everyone helping when and how they can.
Sure enough, as Wendy flew up above the
shrubs she spotted Mr. Scarecrow. He
seemed to be pointing towards some fresh, tasty corn.
Now that helps, she thought.
The
End
