On the Goliath Tree

From far off places, Nate Fox always knew when it was time to eat. As Kit Fox cooked, the grove filled with the aroma of a home-cooked meal.

Nate, Gus and Booey raced through the forest toward the old Oak tree. As they did, Nate Fox’s belly rumbled and grumbled and mumbled, "Give me some food!"

They scampered up and down trails until they finally found their way home. In no time at all, they were gathered around the kitchen table waiting for Kit to finish preparing their mid-day meal. As they waited, Gus grabbed up a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. He began pounding them on the table while he sang a ‘hungry song’.

"Yummy yummy, rub a dub dub, I am hungry, gimme some grub!"

Nate and Booey joined in, pounding the bottoms of their forks and knives on the table and singing for their supper.

"Yummy yummy, rub a dub dub, I am hungry, gimme some grub!"

"All right! All right already! I've got a headache so please stop!" said Kit Fox.
Nate and Booey stopped but Gator sang loud and off key, having the time of his life.

"I told you to hush!" said Kit as she clamped her paws over his knife and fork,

"In the Fox house, we don’t make a racket at the kitchen table. We won’t be needing these anyway," she said as she gathered the silverware and put it away.
Gus frowned at Kit Fox and she frowned back at him. "Just be still, your lunch will be ready in a moment."

As she turned her attention toward the cooking fire, a big, yellow beak popped through her kitchen window, followed closely by the rest of Albatross Albatross.

"Squawk! There you go again Kit, making the rest of us hungry by cooking such sweet delicacies."

"It’s just something I mixed together," said Kit.

Kit and Albatross continued talking about her cooking. Meanwhile, Gus rolled his eyes and made faces. Nate and Booey snickered at Gus Gator.

"Albatross would you care to join us for lunch?" she asked.

"Me?" he asked as he pointed himself out. Quickly, he made his way into the kitchen and Gus's antics stopped. For Augustus Gator, nothing could be worse than having to listen to Albatross squawk while he was trying to eat.

"Has everyone washed up?" Kit asked. The boys all ran down to the creek and washed the dirt off their paws and faces and quickly returned to the kitchen table. Each of the plates was filled with fried frog legs.

"Here you go," said Kit as she placed a pile of fried frog legs on Albatross' plate.

"Squawk! Please stop! This is terrible!"

Augustus Gator had already polished off two frog legs and was halfway through number three when Albatross began yapping. A webbed foot poked awkwardly out of his mouth. "Wath tha mather?" he asked.

"Squawk! What are you folks trying to do to me?"

"I'm terribly sorry, is there something wrong Albatross?" asked Kit.

"Well, I don't eat my own kind!"

"Your own kind?"

"Look at the bird’s foot poking out of Augustus’ mouth!" shrieked Albatross.

"Oh, Albatross, don't be silly. We’re eating frog’s legs."

Albatross looked around the kitchen table then down at his plate. Indeed, they were eating frog legs and not bird’s feet. He still wasn't relieved.

"I won't eat anything from that icky swamp," answered the old bird.

"Well, you eat turtle eggs, right?"

Albatross nodded.

"And you eat fish, right?"

"And how is this any different?" she asked.

"Well...um...I..."

"Try it, you might like it, right Gus?" said Kit, but Gus was too busy feeding his face to worry about Albatross. He barely looked up from his plate long enough to nod to Mother Fox.

"Well okay," said Albatross. He delicately picked up the frog leg with the tips of his feathered wings and nibbled at it.

"Well?" said Booey as everyone looked on.

"Hmmm," muttered Albatross.

"Hmmm? What does that mean? Hmmm?" asked Booey

"I don't know what it means."

"Hmmm," said Booey as he gave Albatross a thoughtful look.

Slowly but surely, Albatross' nibbles turned into bigger and bigger bites. Albatross ended up eating almost half as much as Gus, which was still twice as much as anyone else.

"Phwhew! Those were the best frog legs I have ever eaten!" exclaimed Albatross.

"The best you've ever eaten?" asked Kit.

"If I had ever eaten frog legs before, they would not have been this good."

Kit laughed at the silly old bird as the others excused themselves from the table and cleaned up their plates in the creek bed.

They returned to the kitchen and put away their plates. Albatross and Kit were still talking about frog legs, so the children excused themselves from the Fox house completely.

They ran through the woods to the tall-grass field. They stopped and plopped on the ground, resting after a very good meal.

"I tell you one thing, that Albatross is koo-ray-zee!" said Gus Gator.

"Koo-ray-zee," repeated Nate.

"Aww, c'mon guys, he's not crazy. He's just old," said Booey.

"He's koo-ray-zee and old. If there’s anything worse than just being koo-ray-zee, that is it," said Gus.

The trio laughed themselves silly as Gus poked fun at old Albatross. He squawked and complained as if he was Albatross. Indeed, Albatross was one crazy old bird.

"Hey Gus," said Booey.

"Hey, what?" asked Gus.

"Do you wanna play hide-and-go-seek?"

"I’m busy playing the cloud game," he answered.

"Oh no! Not the cloud game," said Booey.

Gus laid down in the tall-grass and closed his eyes. Booey did not want to play the cloud game, so he got up and hopped off into the woods. Nate Fox followed closely behind.

"Where are we going?" Nate called

"Nowhere."

"Nowhere where?" Nate asked.

"Just anywhere."

"Where anywhere?"

"We will know when we get there," answered Skunk.

So they wandered nowhere and anywhere until they definitely ended up somewhere. That somewhere was somewhere they had never been before.
Back in the middle of the tall-grass field, Gus Gator realized his two friends had disappeared. He looked all around him. Nate and Booey were nowhere in sight.
But Nate and Booey were definitely somewhere.

Sycamore trees and Cypress trees circled the farthest reaches of Beaver Pond. Slimy green water waited for frogs or alligators or even foxes and skunks to take a mid-afternoon dip. Booey and Nate were not interested in swimming in slimy green water. They were tree-climbers, not muck-swimmers like Gus.

"Look at this!" shouted Nate. "Trees with knees!" He pointed at the roots of the
Bald Cypress trees. The roots poked through the water, reminding Nate of old Albatross Albatross's knees when he was enjoying a swim of his own in Beaver Pond.

"Look! Trees with knees!" laughed Booey. He jumped up and grabbed a low-hanging sycamore branch and swung back and forth.

"And long-swinging branches!" Booey shouted back to Nate.

Nate climbed the trees with knees and looked over at Booey. Soon, they were racing to the top of the trees. They hopped from limb-to-limb, seeing who could climb highest. They both climbed very high indeed.

"I can see Beaver lodge, and my house, and your house, and Albatross' house, and Gator's house, and look over there! It's Gus!"

"Yoo hoo!" Booey called out.

Gus looked up into the trees.

"Yoo hoo!" Nate called out.

"What are you two doing way up there?" asked Gus.

"Climbing trees with knees!" shouted Nate.

"Why would anyone want to do that?" asked Gus.

"You can see everything from up here!" said Booey.

"I can see plenty from down here, thank you very much."

"But you can see far away things!"

Gus walked over to the bottom of the tree and tried this climbing thing for himself. He hung there for a few seconds, a Gator stuck in a tree. He couldn’t pull himself up, he couldn’t help himself down. Finally, he dropped from the low branch and plopped onto the ground.

"Oooph!"

Booey rested halfway up as Nate continued to climb higher and higher. Soon, the branches swayed back and forth under Nate’s weight. When Nate climbed as far as he could go, he stopped for a moment and looked around. He had climbed most of the way up the tree. Booey began climbing again until he had climbed as far up into his tree as Nate had his own.

"Now look around," Nate said.

"Omigosh!" exclaimed Booey Skunk, "I've never seen anything like this before. I can even see the Badger Den from here!"

"If you think that is great, you ought to see this," said Nate, who was three branches higher than Skunk.

"What is it?"

"Jump on over and I’ll show you."

"You think I can make it?" asked Booey.

"No problem," Nate said. Booey jumped from one tree to the other. He hopped through the limbs of the bald cypress tree until he was right behind Nate. Nate was peeking over a branch into the trunk of the tree. Booey peered around his shoulder. Nate had found a nest full of robins. Nate grabbed for the nest when Booey slapped him in the back of the head.

"What did you do that for?" asked Nate.

"Hey, these aren't lunch," growled Booey, who suddenly seemed like a protective mother.

"I wasn't going to do that; I just wanted to see them close up," said Nate.

"Well, you don't want to touch the nest, their mother will never come back for them."

"Why not?"

"Because she will think we would eat her children for lunch."

"Oh," said Nate as he withdrew his paw.

They looked around, but there was no mother robin in sight.

"They look hungry," said Booey.

"Don’t worry, I bet the mommy bird will feed them," said Nate.

"I guess so," said Booey.

Nate climbed up several branches. Booey soon followed, leaving the hungry robins behind. Nate stopped and looked down.

"This is as far as I can go," he said.

They looked around at Beaver Pond and the surrounding valley.

"Whooo-whee!" exclaimed Nate, "You were right Booey, I can see the Badger Den from here."

As they looked around, Gus called up to them. "Come on down, I think it's going to rain or something."

"Gus there isn't a cloud in the sky," answered Booey.

"You never know. I think it could rain any moment now," said Gus. He didn’t believe it would rain, but he did want his friends to come down to the safety of the earth where he was standing.

Nate and Booey crawled down the tree and joined Gus on the forest floor. Nate and Booey scampered off, but Gus stopped at the base of the tree.

"What's wrong, Gus?" asked Skunk.

"Nothing, you go ahead, I'll catch up."

Gus reached up for the low branch, but it was too high. He put one foot on a stump beneath the tree and pulled himself up onto the first branch.

He climbed one branch, and then another. Quickly he was high in the tree like his friends had been. He stopped for a moment and looked down. He became light-headed as he looked at the ground far below him. His head whirred as he got dizzier and dizzier.

He braced himself against the tree and caught his balance. As he rested, he looked at the forest below. From the Fox house to Albatross’ to Beaver Pond, he could see every part of the grove.

"Hey, Gus! You did it!" Booey shouted. He hopped around frantically, cheering for Gus.

Gus smiled proudly, then quickly wiped it from his face.

"Yeah, so?" he asked.

"I didn't think you had it in you."

Gus snorted, "that shows what you know."

"Alright, come down! It's my turn!" shouted Nate.

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

"I don't think so," said Gus, who was still busy looking at the forest around him. Down below, Nate and Booey began pulling on low branches, forcing the tree to sway back and forth.

"Hey! No! You guys stop it!"

But they didn't listen to Gus. Booey and Nate wanted to see the pond again. The top half of the tree swayed back and forth in ever-widening circles, sweeping the animals to and fro.

"Stop! You're shaking the tree!" said Gus.

"We’re not stopping until you come down," said Booey.

"I can't climb down until you get out of my way!"

"Well, I'm not getting out of your way until you climb down!" said Nate. He inched up the trunk, one fragile branch at a time. Finally, something had to give. The tree leaned over and dropped the animals into the pond. They plopped into the water one, two, three.

Booey’s arms waved helplessly in the water, trying to keep Booey afloat.

"Omigosh! I can't swim!" he cried out.

Gator quickly surfaced and swam over to Booey, who was paddling for his life. Gator grabbed him and towed him to shore, where he dumped him at the base of the tree.

"I told you to quit shaking the tree!' said Gus. Booey laid under the Cypress tree in a soggy lump. Meanwhile, Nate had just arrived safely to shore and was soggy as well. He plopped himself on the ground between Gus and Booey and stared up into the tree. He looked over at Booey, then over to Gus, who looked back at him.

"That is one big tree," said Nate.

"It's the king of trees," said Gator.

"It's a Goliath Tree," said Booey.

"Ah yes, a Goliath Tree. The best kind of tree to climb," said Gator.

Both Gator and Fox quickly jumped to their feet and struggled to be first to climb the tree again. The much quicker Fox won out, reaching out to the low branch and pulling himself up. Gator pulled him down out of the tree, wrestling him to the ground.

"And just where do you think you're going?" asked Gus.

"Nowhere in particular."

As they wrestled, Booey sneaked over to the tree and began climbing it again.

"Gus?" said Nate.

"Yes?"

"You might want to look up."

Gus and Fox looked up, only to find Booey high in the tree, climbing higher and higher.

"What are you doing up there?" asked Gus.

"I will be down in just a second. I have some unfinished business to do."

Booey climbed up the tree to the Robin's nest. He opened his paw and grabbed a single worm. He began to feed the robins, but the worm was too large for the tiny robins. He put the worm in his mouth and chewed it into small pieces. Then, he fed the worm bits to the hungry robins. The robins gobbled up every last bit. Then, he returned to the ground below.

"What took you so long?" asked Gus.

"I was feeding some baby robins," said Booey.

"Oh. Can I see?"

"I guess."

So Gus climbed up the tree, watched the robins, then came back down again. They took turns climbing the tree and looking over the Beaver Pond until the sun disappeared at the edge of the forest. As mother robin returned to feed dinner to her children, Nate and Gus and Booey returned home to Kit Fox so she could feed them dinner, too.