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| Barnaby, Dash, and Betty combine their speed, smarts, and strength to roll the giant oak tree out of the way so they can get to the Grand Summer Picnic. |
Deep inside the middle of Whispering Woods, right near the edge of the bubbly Blue Creek, lived a raccoon whose name was Barnaby.
Barnaby wasn’t just a regular raccoon; he wore a bright red bandana on his neck, and he had the fastest paws in the whole forest. Today, Barnaby was in a big hurry. It was the day of the Grand Summer Picnic, i c and the rumor was that there were going to be marshmallows.
"I can't be la, I can't be late!" Barnaby chirped while he was running over roots and rocks.
He went around a corner on the trail and then — SCREECH!
Barnaby stopped real fast. His fluffy tail got all puffy because he was surprised.
Right in the middle of the path lay a giant oak tree. It had fallen down during a storm the night before. It was huge and it was heavy. And it was blocking the only way to get to the picnic grounds.
Barnaby pushed the log with his paws. Grunt! It didn’t move even a little bit.
He tried to dig under it. Scratch, scratch! The dirt was too hard to dig.
He tried to jump over it, too. Boing! He slid right off the slippery bark, and he landed on his bottom.
"Oh, chestnuts!" Barnaby sighed. "I will never get to the marshmallows now."
Just then, he heard a thump-thump-thump sound. Out of the bushes came Betty the Beaver. Betty was wearing her favorite safety goggles cause she was always building things.
"What is the hold up, Barnaby?" Betty asked, fixing her goggles.
"This giant tree is stuck!" Barnaby said. "And my paws aren’t strong enough to move it."
Betty hit the log with her tail. "Hm, this is a solid oak tree. I could chew through it, but it would take me three whole days. We would miss the picnic!"
Barnaby’s ears went down. "No picnic?"
"Not unless we get some help," Betty said.
Suddenly, a blur of brown fur went past them and stopped just in time. It was Dash the Deer. Dash was the fastest runner in the woods, and he was wearing his lucky blue sneakers, we, not real sneakers, but his hooves were very fast.
"Why is everyone standing around?" Dash asked, jogging in place. "The s’mores are waiting!"
"We are stuck," said Barnaby. "I can’t push it, and Betty can’t chew it fast enough. And you can’t jump it, Dash, it is too high even for you."
Dash looked at the giant log. He looked at Barnaby’s clever hands. He looked at Betty’s strong teeth, too.
"Maybe we don't have to move the whole tree," Dash said. "What if we work together to roll it?"
"It is too heavy to roll!" Barnaby said.
"Not if we use a lever!" said Betty. Her eyes lit up behind the goggles. "Barnab, you use your crafty hands to find a long,n g strong branch. Dash, you use your strong shoulders to push. I will dig a groove in the dirt so it has somewhere to go!"
The team got to work right away.
Barnaby ran into the brush and found a long, thick branch. He put it under the giant log.
Betty used her sharp claws to dig a smooth track in the mud.
Dash put his head down and placed his shoulder against the tree.
"Okay, team," Betty shouted. "On three! One... Two... Three! PUSH!"
Barnaby pulled down on the branch lever.
Dash pushed with all his might.
Betty guided the log.
Creak... Groan... RUMBLE!
Slowly, the giant oak tree began to turn. ROLL... ROLL... KER-PLUNK!
The tree rolled right off the path and landed in the ditch with a big splash. The path was clear!
"We did it!" Barnaby cheered, throwing his red bandana in the air.
"That was an excellent building," Betty said, high-fiving Dash.
"Last one to the picnic is a rotten egg!" yelled Dash, already taking off down the trail.
Barnaby and Betty ran after him, laughing all the way.
When they got to the Grand Summer Picnic, the other animals cheered. They roasted marshmallows and made sticky gooey s’mores and told stories by the fire.
Barnaby took a big bite of a marshmallow and smiled at his friends. He realized that while he was fast and Betty was smart, and Dash was strong, they were unstoppable when they worked together.
The End.
