Saturday, July 19, 2008

I took one step off of the path,

to the right and there in the thicket, a little gray bunny was collecting berries for her family supper. "Hi, you're Ethan, Mr. Squirrel's friend, aren't you?" Yes, "I don't think you will be comfortable in the thicket, you'd better go back to the path." I will be alright and right down to the creek he strutted, without as much as a second thought.
I'm nearly nine, he thought. Its time I start doing things without the rest of the brothers and sisters having to vote on it.
The creek was a wild and eery place with a world of wildlife all its own. The creek wildlife has everything it needs right down there and never needs to go up to the path for anything. I had no idea that Mr Squirrel, himself had never been down to the creek, before and this was his first adventure down there too.

No one would've guessed that Ethan was afraid of wandering off by himself. It really wasn't wandering, He knew that Mom was on the courts and the other kids were on the path, he had permission and this kind of fun and adventure was something he had absolutely never done before.

A school of pollywogs swam close to his feet and he certainly wanted to shed his shirt and join them in the cooling water, but he dare not go that far, regardless of the heat he was feeling. He drank in the sight of them wiggling together in the water and kept the thought in his mind to draw on his sketch pad when he got back to the car.
Frogs and flies and diamond needles and beetles and fish and alot of different kinds of worms and lizard things were down there and he didn't have any idea what most of them were. As long as he wasn't bothering them and just sitting there watching they were fine. 20 minutes past quickly and he was sitting there and watching the interplay of the stream and the wind and the birds and other wildlife. Amazed.

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