Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Children's Stories
by Margo Fallis
An Autumn Day to Play


"I love autumn," Cockles laughed. He ran through a pile of rust, orange, amber and maroon leaves and they flew high into the air. "Aren’t autumn colors lovely?"

"Yes. I don’t like to see the trees bare or the grass turn brown, but I do love playing in the leaves. Right now Mrs. McNaught has a garden filled with big orange pumpkins. What do you say we go over there and play?" Mussels suggested.

Cockles agreed and they ran to Mrs. McNaught’s garden. "Wow! Look at all the pumpkins. What do you think she does with them all?"

An Autumn Day to Play

"I don’t know but you know what I’m thinking?" Mussels asked.

"No, what?"

"Why don’t we have a contest and try to jump from one pumpkin to the other, without falling? There are so many of them that it should be easy," Mussels said.

He ran and climbed onto the largest pumpkin. "Don’t trip on the vines, Cockles. Come on, climb aboard," he called.

Cockles climbed onto another large orange pumpkin, which wasn’t an easy thing for a dachshund to do. "I’m up."

"I’m going to jump to that one over there. You jump to this one," Mussels suggested. He leapt through the air and landed on the next pumpkin. "That was easy. Your turn," he shouted.

Cockles couldn’t jump as well as Mussels did, but he sprang off. His long, reddish brown body flew through the air and landed on the pumpkin. "That was fun! Let’s do it again!"

They hopped and leapt from pumpkin to pumpkin until they had nearly jumped onto all of them. "I’m going to do this last one and then we can go play in the corn stalks," Mussels said. He leapt with a spring and landed on the pumpkin. He landed so hard that his legs went right into the pumpkin flesh. He was stuck. "Will you help me, please?" he pleaded with Cockles, who was standing on the ground now, laughing his head off.

"You’re a little stuck there, aren’t you?"

"If you’ll pull me, then I can get unstuck!" Mussels said.

Cockles went behind Mussels and pulled. He pulled and pulled some more and soon Mussel’s legs came out and the two dogs fell backwards into the pumpkin vines and leaves. "Look at your legs," Cockles said, squirming his face.

Mussel’s legs were covered with orange slime and seeds. "Disgusting," he said and wiped them off. "We’ll have to head over to the burn to wash my legs off."

They ran out of Mrs. McNaught’s garden and soon were standing at the stream. QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! The dogs looked up and saw a flock of ducks, heading south. They were in a V-formation. Mussels quickly splashed water on his fur and soon they were clean. "Those ducks will be going where it’s warmer. They must know how cold winters are on Barra," Cockles chuckled.

"I’m a bit chilled myself," Mussels said. "Washing oneself of in an icy cold burn doesn’t make you warm." He shook himself off and water went flying everywhere. "Are you up to playing in Jim Taylor’s cornfield?" he asked his friend.

"That sounds like fun, but don’t lose me. I remember the last time we played in there. I was lost for hours," Cockles reminded.

"Come on. The corn’s been picked off and the stalks are starting to die, so it shouldn’t be too bad," Mussels said, running towards the field.

It was as he’d said. The cornstalks were browning. "I’ll go and hide and you come and find me," Cockles said. He ran off to hide. "I think I’ll hide right here," he whispered.

"I’m coming to find you now," shouted Mussels. Cockles could hear Mussels running about the cornfield. He giggled softly, happy that he’d not been found yet. "Where are you, Cockles?" called Mussels.

Cockles didn’t answer. He wanted Mussels to keep looking. After a while he didn’t hear any noises. He didn’t hear Mussels calling his name. He didn’t hear him breathing hard or running about. "Hmmm. I wonder if he’s there still," Cockles said. He came out of his hiding place and walked through the cornstalks. "I’m here," he shouted, but there was no answer and no Mussels. "Mussels! Mussels! I’m right here. Come and find me!"

Mussels hid and was very quiet. He wanted Cockles to think he’d gone back home. "There he is, hee, hee, hee," chuckled Mussels. "He thinks I’ve gone."

Cockles came closer and closer to where Mussels was hiding. "Where is he? Did he go home? I hope he’s not playing with my blue ball!" Cockles said.

Just then, Mussels jumped out from behind a large stone. "Got you!" he shouted.

Cockles fell to the ground in fear. "You frightened me!" he gasped, holding his heart.

"Hee, hee, hee, hee," laughed Mussels. "You thought I’d gone home to play with your blue ball, didn’t you?"

"Well, yes I did. Enough of this. I’m tired. Let’s go home," Cockles said. He was feeling rather angry about being fooled.

"I’ll beat you home," Mussels shouted and ran away towards the house.

"Och, that dog!" Cockles sighed and ran after Mussels. When he got back to the house, there was Mussels, tossing his blue ball into the air. "Give it back," Cockles said.

"No!"

"If you don’t, then I’ll tell all the other dogs on the island about you having pumpkin slime and seeds on your legs," Cockles threatened.

Mussels dropped the ball. "Och, all right. Here you go," he said and tossed the blue ball back to Cockles.

That night they both lay quietly in their baskets, thinking of the fun day they’d had in the pumpkin patch and in the cornfield. Cockles wrapped his paws tightly around his ball and fell asleep, with a smile on his face, thinking about Mussels feet stuck in the pumpkin.


Return to Children's Stories


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast