Marbles' Lost and Found
MINI MINI STORIES
At the edge of the forest lived a raccoon named Marbles.
Though not particularly sentimental, Marbles would often bring home odd little things, lost things and left-behind things no one seemed to want anymore.
Four tent pegs.
Half a roll of string.
A tiny piece of wood.
The foxes thought this was hilarious.
“Your wagon looks like a rolling junk pile,” they laughed.
But Marbles didn’t mind.
“I think some things still have another use left in them,” he said.
One breezy autumn evening, the animals gathered beside the pond for the Moonlight Picnic.
Lanterns glowed in the trees.
Music floated across the water.
Mrs. Bumbleberry came carrying her famous triple-berry pie.
Then the wind arrived.
WHOOSH.
The picnic blanket flipped over the potato salad.
SNAP.
A lantern slipped loose from its branch.
CLUNK.
The dessert table tilted sideways, sending the berry pie slowly sliding toward the edge.
Everyone rushed in different directions at once.First, he slid the tiny piece of wood beneath the short table leg.
The pie stopped exactly one inch from disaster.
Next, he tied the lantern back onto the branch using the leftover string.
Finally, he hammered the tent pegs through the picnic blanket corners to hold them in place.
The meadow went quiet.
Even the foxes looked impressed.
“How did you know those things would help?”asked one of the foxes.
Marbles smiled.
“I didn’t,” he said. “But I do know that sometimes forgotten things still have important work left to do.”
After that, the animals saw Marbles a little differently.
And before long, many of them had started bringing him things for his Lost & Found wagon.
