The Clover Curse Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1: The Groundhog’s Rainbow

  Chapter 2: A New Recipe

  Chapter 3: Stop, Thief!

  Chapter 4: Tea Time

  Chapter 5: Rain, Rain, Go Away

  Chapter 6: Winston’s Weird Story

  Chapter 7: Coincidence or Curse?

  Chapter 8: Sophie Gives Up

  Chapter 9: Ben Returns

  Chapter 10: Good-Luck Charm

  A Surprise Visitor Sneak Peek

  About Poppy Green and Jennifer A. Bell

  The Groundhog’s Rainbow

  Mrs. Wise closed the book she had just read out loud to the class. Sophie sighed. Wow! What a story! she thought.

  A groundhog had found a hidden stairway in a tree. He’d climbed it all the way to the top branch. But the stairway kept going. So the groundhog did too—into the clouds and over a rainbow! He found a magical world on the other side.

  Sophie loved the story and the way it was told. It didn’t feel like a fairy tale. It was written as if it had really happened!

  “All right class,” said Mrs. Wise. “Who can tell me what a legend is?”

  Lydie, Hattie Frog’s big sister, raised her hand.

  “It’s a story that animals believe in,” Lydie said. “But there’s no proof that it really happened.”

  Mrs. Wise nodded. “That’s a good way to put it,” she said. “Have any of you heard stories like this? Are there any legends of Silverlake Forest?”

  A few hands went up around the one-room schoolhouse.

  “The Tale of the Fox’s Tail!” said Zoe the bluebird.

  Sophie nodded. That one was about a fox whose tail would not stop growing.

  “The Myth of the Mousebug!” Ben the rabbit suggested.

  Sophie squeaked excitedly. She was fascinated by the tale of a mouse who turned into a bug!

  A ladybug swooped in through a classroom window. It flew around Sophie’s head. Then it landed on the windowsill. Sophie stared at the bug as her mind wandered.

  “Are you the mousebug?” she whispered playfully.

  The bug buzzed out the window and was gone. Sophie’s eyes fixed on a patch of blue sky outside. It had been raining for days. Now the sun was finally poking through. She could just make out a pale misty rainbow.

  The groundhog’s rainbow! Sophie thought, smiling to herself.

  Mrs. Wise dismissed the class for the day. “We’ll talk more about legends on Monday!” she called as everyone stood up.

  Sophie hurried outside to get a better look at the rainbow. At the foot of the steps, she stopped next to her friends Hattie Frog and Owen Snake.

  “Look, you guys!” she said, pointing up at the sky.

  But they didn’t hear. They were listening to Ben, a rabbit, who was talking about something.

  “Winston, check out the rainbow!” Sophie said to her little brother, who had come over. But he was listening to Ben too.

  Sophie studied the rainbow. How could she paint one to look misty like that? Start with pale colors, she decided. Then go over it with a wash of water to blend the colors.

  All the rainy days had kept Sophie from painting outside. With the weather clearing, she wanted to get back to it.

  Sophie couldn’t wait to paint—all weekend long!

  A New Recipe

  “See you on Sunday!” Sophie called to Hattie. The two friends were going to check out Rosebush Ravine. Owen already had plans, so he couldn’t join.

  Sophie grabbed Winston’s hand. She pulled him toward home. “Let’s get this weekend started!” Sophie exclaimed.

  They ran along the path until a large oak tree came into view. At the base of the trunk, the mouse family’s house was tucked between two roots.

  Winston stopped in his tracks. He looked at Sophie with a sly smile. Then he called out, “Race you home!” Winston took off before the words were out of his mouth.

  Sophie raced after him. She got to the oak tree first. Winston was only two steps behind her.

  “I lost again,” Winston said glumly. He kicked at a pine needle on the ground.

  Sophie patted him on the back. “Yeah, but you’re getting so much faster. We almost tied this time!”

  Winston kicked at the pine needle again. But Sophie saw his whiskers twitch. He was trying not to smile.

  Inside, George Mouse was hard at work at his drafting table. Mr. Mouse was an architect. At the moment, he was drawing up plans for a chipmunk family’s lake home.

  Sophie peeked over his shoulder. He had started with a blank piece of paper that morning. Now he had the outline of a whole house!

  Winston ran in from the kitchen. “We’re out of bread,” he told his dad. “Can I go visit Mom at the bakery?” Lily Mouse owned the only bakery in Pine Needle Grove.

  Mr. Mouse glanced up from his work. “If your sister will go with you.”

  Winston looked at Sophie with pleading eyes. Sophie’s tummy rumbled. She could use an afternoon snack.

  “Okay!” said Sophie. “Let’s go!”

  They scurried down the path to town. As they went, they played stone hop, one of their favorite games. They looked for stones or sticks along the path and hopped from one to the next. They went as far as they could without touching the ground.

  At the bakery Lily Mouse was taking a tray out of the oven.

  “Hello!” she cried when she saw them. “You’re just in time! I need tasters for my newest recipe: clover-flower and almond scones.”

  Mrs. Mouse put a warm scone in each of their hands. Sophie blew on hers, then tasted it. “Yum!” she cried. “This is good.” Her mom was always inventing new flavor combinations.

  Sophie helped move the rest of the scones to a cooling rack.

  “Do you remember my friend Clio?” Mrs. Mouse said.

  Sophie nodded. Clio was a chipmunk who lived over in the Clover Patch.

  “I was visiting her the other day,” Mrs. Mouse went on. “The clovers were in full bloom. So I picked some. And I started to experiment!”

  As she finished her scone, Sophie pictured the Clover Patch. In her mind, she could see the pale lavender of the flowers and the bright green of the clover leaves.

  Suddenly, Sophie had the urge to experiment too—with color!

  The Clover Patch! That’s where I’ll go to paint tomorrow, she thought. I can mix some new clover green paint right there on the spot!

  Stop, Thief!

  The next morning, after breakfast, Sophie packed up her things. She folded up her easel. She put paints, brushes, mixing jars, and a water canteen into her satchel. She tucked a pad of art paper under one arm.

  It would be a lot to carry. But Sophie didn’t have far to go. The Clover Patch was a short walk from her house.

  She took the path toward the stream. She passed by Hattie’s house. But Sophie knew Hattie couldn’t come with her, so she didn’t bother stopping in.

  Halfway to Forget-Me-Not Lake, Sophie turned off the path. She cut across a meadow. On the other side, she came to the edge of the Clover Patch.

  Bright green clovers stretched out as far as Sophie could see. Perched on top were purple pom-pom blooms. Sophie took a deep breath. The air was full of their sweet scent. She spotted a few red ladybugs hanging out on clover leaves.

  Sophie found a good spot. She set up her easel. She pulled out a sheet of paper. She mixed up some colors.

  She mixed raspberry red, blueberry blue, and wisteria white to make a beautiful pale purple. It was perfect for the clover flowers.

  Poppy red plus a drop of bark brown would be good for painting the little ladybugs.

  And Sophie would need lots of green! She picked a clover. She ground it into a powder. Then she took out her water canteen. She added a few drops to the
powder. “Clover green!” she announced.

  Sophie began to paint. She made the lines of the clover stems.

  She formed the heart shapes of the big leaves.

  She dabbed on the pale purple. It made the clover flowers look fuzzy.

  Sophie was lost in her work. She did not hear the bees buzzing by. She did not see the butterflies playing tag overhead. She barely felt the breeze on her fur.

  Sophie also did not hear an animal rustling the clovers. Suddenly, a young chipmunk jumped out from his hiding place.

  “Oh!” Sophie cried in surprise. “Hello!”

  The chipmunk didn’t answer. He stood beside Sophie’s easel, flicking his tail. He put his nose up close to her painting. He looked at Sophie. He looked down at her paints.

  Then, in a flash, he grabbed the paintbrush from the jar of clover green. He zipped away.

  “Hey!” Sophie cried. “Stop!” She dropped her other brush and chased after him. “Come back here with my paintbrush!”

  Tea Time

  Sophie sprinted, chasing the chipmunk to the far side of the Clover Patch. He leaped out into a clearing, then darted into a little grass hut. He slammed the door behind him.

  Sophie fumed. But she wasn’t about to give up! She marched up to the door and knocked loudly.

  Moments later, the door swung open. Sophie opened her mouth to demand her paintbrush, but—

  “Sophie!” cried the chipmunk staring back at her.

  What? This wasn’t the one she’d been chasing.

  It was Clio, her mother’s friend!

  “Your mom didn’t tell me you’d be stopping by,” Clio said kindly.

  “Well, I . . .” Sophie began. “I was just painting in the Clover Patch.” She peered over Clio’s shoulder. That little chipmunk had to be in there somewhere.

  “Painting, you say?” Clio asked curiously. “So the dripping wet paintbrush that my son Caleb just brought in . . .” Clio smiled apologetically at Sophie. “I bet that belongs to you?”

  Sophie smiled and nodded.

  “Caleb!” Clio called. Then she took Sophie by the hand. “Please, come in dear. I’m sorry about this. Caleb is only four. And we're still working on manners,” she said with a wink.

  The young chipmunk shuffled in from another room. He had his hands behind his back.

  “Caleb,” said Clio, “this is my friend Sophie. I think you have something of hers?”

  Caleb shook his head. “No, I don’t,” he replied with wide eyes.

  Drip, drip. Drops of green paint splattered onto the floor behind Caleb’s feet.

  “Caleb . . .” said Clio firmly.

  Caleb sighed. “Sorry,” he said shyly, handing over the brush. Then his face brightened. “Can she stay for tea?” he asked Clio.

  “Of course!” Clio replied, looking at Sophie. “If she’d like.”

  Sophie nodded. So Clio made a pot of clover tea. Meanwhile, Sophie had a chance to look around Clio’s tidy little house. Nearly everything was shaped like a clover: the windows, the table, the stools, and even the teacups that Clio poured the tea into.

  The three of them sat down at the table. Caleb reached for a clover-shaped biscuit. Clio and Sophie sipped their tea and chatted. Clio asked about the colorful paint smudges on Sophie’s hands. Sophie explained how she’d made a new color from clover leaves.

  “Clovers are such special plants,” Clio said. “Animals come to pick them for so many uses—for dyes, for food, even for medicines.”

  After tea, Sophie thanked Clio. She said good-bye to Caleb and headed back to her easel. On the way, she plucked a few more clovers. She would need to make more clover green.

  Sophie’s eyes fell on a clover up ahead. It was the perfect shade of green. She reached out, grabbed the stem, and pulled.

  Its leaves were so large!

  No, that’s not it, Sophie thought.

  Then she gasped. “It’s a four-leaf clover!” she cried. “What good luck!”

  Rain, Rain, Go Away

  Sophie painted the morning away. She painted three landscapes. Then she made some up-close studies of a clover leaf and a clover flower. She did a portrait of a bumblebee who was willing to sit still for a while.

  Sophie had to make several batches of clover green paint. But she made sure not to grind up the four-leaf clover! Sophie leaned it against her easel. She planned to carry it home carefully when it was time to go.

  That time came sooner than she expected. Plip. Plop. Two giant drops fell onto Sophie’s latest painting.

  Sophie gazed up. The sky was getting darker and darker. That’s odd, she thought. Usually I can smell the rain coming. She shrugged. Maybe she’d been too wrapped up in her painting to notice.

  All of Sophie’s paintings were spread out on the ground to dry. She quickly tucked them inside her paper pad. She threw paints and brushes into her satchel. She folded her easel. Finally, she grabbed the four-leaf clover. Then she started running for home.

  She was barely out of the Clover Patch when it began to pour. Sophie groaned. Her paintings! She couldn’t bear the thought of them getting soaked. As she ran, Sophie tried to shield the papers with her satchel. But the rain was so heavy! Her heart sank further with each sloshy step.

  Halfway home, Sophie stepped in some mud. Her feet slipped and she slid across the mud puddle. She was falling over backward! She threw her arms out to the side and caught herself. But a few paint tins fell out of her satchel. Sophie had to stop to pluck them out of the mud.

  Meanwhile, the paper was getting wetter and wetter.

  Finally, Sophie ran up the front path to her house. She dashed in through the front door, slamming it behind her.

  Muddy and soaked, she stood there catching her breath.

  Mr. and Mrs. Mouse looked up from their reading. “Oh, sweetheart,” her mom said sympathetically. “Got caught in the rain?”

  Sophie nodded sadly. A lump was rising in her throat. She felt as if she was going to cry.

  She dragged herself up the stairs to her room. She dropped her things and put her pad of paper down on her table. She took a deep breath. Then she opened the cover.

  It was worse than she feared. All of her beautiful paintings! They were nothing but watery streaks of paint.

  Winston’s Weird Story

  Sophie woke up the next morning feeling a little better. Though she was still sad about her paintings. She had put so much time and care into them.

  At least I got one good thing out of yesterday, she thought.

  Her four-leaf clover was in a vase by her window. She brought it down to breakfast. She wanted to show Winston.

  “Look what I found yesterday!” Sophie said as she came down the stairs.

  Winston took one look at the clover and nearly choked on his berries.

  “Sophie!” he cried. “What are you doing with that?”

  Sophie didn’t understand. “I found it at the Clover Patch,” she said. “It’ll bring me good luck!”

  Winston shook his head. “No.” His eyes were wide. “Didn’t you hear Ben? At school?”

  Sophie shook her head. “What are you talking about, Winston?”

  Winston sighed. “Sophie, why would you pick that clover when Ben told us all about the Clover Curse!”

  Sophie thought back to Friday after school. She’d been studying the rainbow. Everyone else had been listening to Ben.

  “A four-leaf clover curse?” Sophie said in disbelief. “Winston, that makes no sense. Everyone knows they’re good luck.”

  Winston jumped up. “No really!” he cried. “That’s what Ben said.”

  Sophie asked Winston for more details. But he couldn’t remember much. “It’s just . . . there was this animal . . . and there was this clover . . . with four leaves . . . and then soon after the animal picked it, he started having bad luck!”

  “Like what?” asked Sophie.

  Winston couldn’t remember. Sophie smiled. It didn’t sound so convincing. But Sophie didn’t feel lik
e arguing, so she changed the subject.

  “Want to go to the playground after breakfast?” she asked Winston.

  Winston’s face lit up. “Yeah!” he shouted. Just like that, the Clover Curse seemed forgotten.

  At the playground, they were the only ones there. They played on the seesaw for a little while. Then they decided to race. Sophie expected to win as usual. She even let Winston be the one to say “go.”

  “Ready, set . . . go!” Winston cried. And he bolted off the starting line.

  Sophie’s back foot sank down into a pile of pine needles. She got a slow start. Halfway across the playground, she’d caught up to Winston. Then she ran into a cloud of gnats. One of them flew in her ear. She slowed as she tried to get it out.

  Winston easily won. He cheered with excitement. “You were right!” he said. “I am getting faster!”

  Sophie’s shoulders slumped. But if those gnats hadn’t been in my way . . . she thought. She probably could have won.

  A little later, two friends from school showed up: Malcolm, a mole, and Piper, a hummingbird. Winston was swinging on the swing. Sophie sat at the top of the jungle gym with Piper and Malcolm.

  “Hey,” Sophie said uncertainly. “Did you guys hear Ben telling some clover story on Friday? After school?”

  Malcolm and Piper looked puzzled. “What clover story?” Piper asked.

  Sophie couldn’t believe she’d even asked. “Never mind,” she said.

  Coincidence or Curse?