The Emerald Berries Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Forest Friends

  Chapter 2: A Trip to Town

  Chapter 3: Sophie Makes a Deal

  Chapter 4: The Journey Begins

  Chapter 5: What’s That Sound?

  Chapter 6: Lost!

  Chapter 7: The Way to Weedsnag Way

  Chapter 8: Harry Higgins’s Home

  Chapter 9: Hattie’s Secret

  Chapter 10: The Whole Truth

  Forget-Me-Not Lake Excerpt

  About Poppy Green and Jennifer A. Bell

  Forest Friends

  In the heart of Silverlake Forest, a mouse, a frog, and a snake talked and played by a stream. It was just another after-school playdate for Sophie Mouse and her good friends, Hattie Frog and Owen Snake.

  Owen was lazily draped over a low-hanging tree branch. He watched as Sophie, sitting on a rock below, drew in her sketchbook. She was adding a bee to her garden scene.

  “That reminds me of our field trip to see the honeybee hives!” Owen said. “It was my favorite part of school this week.”

  Mrs. Wise, their teacher at Silverlake Elementary, had taken them to see how honey was made by the worker bees.

  “Want to know my favorite thing from this week?” called Hattie. She was hopping from lily pad to lily pad. “It was the visit from Mr. Wallace, the flying frog!”

  Mr. Wallace, an old friend of Mrs. Wise, had come to speak to the students about his flying adventures. He had extra webbing on his large feet. He could make gliding flights from tree to tree!

  Spotting a fish in the clear water, Hattie raced to see if she could beat it to the big rock Sophie was on. “Look at me!” Hattie shouted. “I’m a flying frog!”

  Meanwhile, Sophie sketched away, her nose almost touching the paper. She was adding some ants to a log in the foreground. Maybe one of them should be carrying something, Sophie thought, like a seed or a piece of fruit. Ants are so strong! Sophie remembered a book she had read once. It said ants can carry things fifty times heavier than they are. That would be like a mouse carrying a pineapple! I don’t think I could carry a pineapple. Plus I don’t think I’d want to. The one I saw once in the general store was so prickly looking. . . .

  “Sophie?” Hattie was calling. “Sophie! Hello? Sophie?”

  “What?” Sophie replied. She looked up from her drawing. “What did you say?”

  Owen and Hattie laughed. “You didn’t hear a word we said, did you?” Hattie asked.

  Owen added, “I was asking you what your favorite part of this week was.”

  “Oh!” said Sophie. She put her pencil eraser to her chin as she thought it over. “That’s easy. Having art class outdoors!”

  Mrs. Wise had taught a lesson outside on Wednesday. It was one part science and one part art. The assignment had been to look for different types of mushrooms and draw them.

  Sophie loved the outdoors. When she was in school, she liked to sit right next to the schoolhouse window. But Mrs. Wise said it made Sophie too daydreamy. Sophie had to admit: She did love an adventure—even if it was just an imaginary one.

  “Haaaar-ri-et!” came a voice from upstream. It was Hattie’s mom. She was the only one who called Hattie by her full name. “Anyone over there hungry? I’ve got a snack for you three!”

  Snack? Sophie, Hattie, and Owen looked at one another. Then the race was on to Hattie’s house.

  A Trip to Town

  “Queen me!” Sophie said to her little brother, Winston. They were playing acorn-cap checkers. Sophie already had six queens, while Winston had only two.

  It was Saturday morning in the Mouse family’s cottage nestled between the roots of an oak tree. Sophie’s father, George Mouse, had lived there all his life. In fact, his grandfather had built the cottage and most of the things inside—including the checkers set Sophie and Winston were using.

  Winston’s whiskers twitched. He was looking for his next move. He reached down and double-jumped two of Sophie’s pieces.

  Sophie gasped in surprise—then laughed. “You’re getting better, Winston.”

  Winston smiled proudly. He was six. That was two years younger than Sophie, and he was always trying to catch up.

  Just then, they heard their mother, Lily Mouse, calling from outside. “I have some errands in town! Anyone want to come?”

  Sophie jumped up. “I do!” she cried.

  “But we’re not done!” Winston complained.

  “We’ll finish later,” Sophie said, and she dashed to the door. “I promise! Don’t let Dad take my place!”

  Sophie hardly ever passed up a trip into town. It was only a short walk down the path. But it was a fun change from their sleepy corner of Pine Needle Grove. The library was there, as well as the post office, the bookstore, and Lily Mouse’s bakery, of course.

  Today was Lily Mouse’s day off, and she had some things to pick up at a few of the other shops.

  First, she and Sophie stopped at Little Leaf Bookstore. Sophie loved the smell of brand-new books.

  Mrs. Mouse picked up a pastry cookbook she had ordered. She was famous for coming up with her own unique recipes. But she was always looking for new ideas. “Enjoy!” said friendly Mrs. Follet, the store owner.

  Next, they stopped at Handy’s Hardware. Mr. Handy, an elderly badger, had put aside some wooden pegs that Mr. Mouse needed for a building project.

  Then they zipped into the general store. Mrs. Mouse paid for a tin of dandelion tea. It went perfectly with the rolls and cakes at the bakery, so she always liked to have some on hand.

  Finally, Sophie and her mom stepped into a tiny shop called In Stiches. The owner, a bluebird named Mrs. Weaver, was the town’s seamstress. Mrs. Mouse had asked Mrs. Weaver to make her a new apron.

  “Hello, Lily! Hello, Sophie!” Mrs. Weaver called out as they entered. “Be with you in a moment.”

  Mrs. Weaver was hemming the skirt of a lovely green silk dress on a hanger.

  “Wow!” Sophie cried. “What a color!” The fabric was a deep, shimmery green that had flecks of blue sprinkled throughout. It reminded Sophie of the feathers on a mallard duck.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Mrs. Weaver agreed. She fluttered over to them. “That fabric was dyed with the juice from some very special berries.”

  Berries? Sophie thought. She had never seen a berry that could make a color like that. And Sophie knew her berries. She gathered all kinds to make different colors of paint for her paintings.

  Sophie needed to get her hands on some of those berries! If they can make a fabric that color, she thought, just think what a beautiful paint color they could make!

  “Where do these berries grow?” Sophie asked excitedly.

  Mrs. Weaver shook her head. “Oh, nowhere around here, dear,” she said. “Emerald berries grow in only one place in the whole wide forest. And it’s a place you surely would not want to go.”

  Sophie’s brow furrowed. “Why not, Mrs. Weaver?” she asked. She couldn’t think of anywhere in the forest she wouldn’t go to get berries like that.

  Well, except maybe one place. It was a place Sophie had only heard of. It was—

  “Weedsnag Way,” said Mrs. Weaver.

  Sophie gulped.

  Sophie Makes a Deal

  Carrying their packages, Sophie and her mother strolled home. “I think I’ll make some dandelion tea and read my new cookbook when we get back,” said Mrs. Mouse. “Would you like some tea too, Sophie?”

  But Sophie didn’t hear her mom. She couldn’t stop thinking about the emerald berries. Oh, why can’t they grow somewhere other than Weedsnag Way?

  “Sophie?” Lily Mouse said again.

  “Hmm?” Sophie said. “Sorry, Mom. I was just thinking . . . um . . . can I go over to Hattie’s h
ouse to play?”

  “Oh!” said Mrs. Mouse. “Sure.” She took the wooden pegs and the apron, which Sophie had been carrying. “Come home before dinner, okay?”

  “Okay!” Sophie called. And she scurried off toward Hattie’s house on the stream, while Lily Mouse went on to their cottage.

  Sophie did want to play with Hattie. She invited Hattie outside to skip stones on the stream. But she also wanted to tell her friend about the emerald berries.

  “What?!” Hattie cried when Sophie told her. “Weedsnag Way?” Her eyes went wide with fear.

  “Shhhhhh,” Sophie said, looking toward Hattie’s house. “Keep your voice down. I know, I know. It’s supposed to be dark and scary and all that. But I really want to find those berries! We just need—”

  “We?” interrupted Hattie. “You want me to go too? But Sophie, we don’t even know how to get there. And it’s not just dark and scary. It’s supposed to be dangerous and . . .”

  As she trailed off, Hattie threw a stone in the stream. She had stopped short of saying one other thing. Sophie knew what it was. Everyone had heard the story. A squirrel from Pine Needle Grove had ventured to Weedsnag Way once. He’d never come back—and no one had heard from him since.

  “But no one really knows what it’s like,” Sophie pointed out. She threw a stone, then turned to face Hattie. “Remember how everyone at school was scared of Owen at first? It was because of all the stories they’d heard about snakes. Stories that weren’t true!” Sophie shrugged. “Maybe Weedsnag Way is not really scary and dangerous at all.”

  Hattie was quiet for a minute. She threw stone after stone into the stream. Some of them skipped. Some of them just plunked into the water.

  Then she spoke. “Are you going to go there no matter what?” Hattie asked.

  Sophie smiled. Hattie knew her so well. “If I can find a map,” Sophie said.

  Hattie sighed. “Then I’ll come. But on one condition: If we run into any danger, we turn back. Deal?”

  Sophie rolled her eyes, pretending not to like Hattie’s rule. But secretly, she was relieved. She knew it was a good idea.

  Sophie jumped up. “Deal!”

  The Journey Begins

  Early the next morning, Sophie added a few more supplies to her sack: a canteen of water, a sweater, a hat, and a scarf. Finally, she tucked in a tin of mint-leaf biscuits. Hattie loved those.

  Then, all dressed, with her sack on her back, she paused at the front door of the silent cottage. Everyone else was still asleep. She didn’t want to tell her parents where she was going. They might say she couldn’t go. But it didn’t feel right just leaving. So Sophie wrote a note:

  She left it on the table. It’s not the whole truth, thought Sophie. But it’s most of it.

  Hattie was waiting outside her front door when Sophie arrived. “Ready?” Sophie asked excitedly.

  Hattie nodded, but she looked a little nervous.

  “Don’t worry,” Sophie said. “This will be fun! And I have everything we need.” She reached into her sack and pulled out a map. “I went to the library yesterday afternoon. I found a map of Weedsnag Way and copied it down.”

  On her hand-drawn map, Sophie had marked the path in red ink. Weedsnag Way had a big red X on it.

  Sophie led the way. Hattie followed, slowly at first. But as they walked through familiar woods, Hattie’s pace picked up. Soon they were walking side by side, laughing and chatting.

  Then they came to the banks of Forget-Me-Not Lake. Hattie stopped. She gazed out at the lily pads on the water. Sophie knew what she was thinking. Hattie wished that this was their destination instead of Weedsnag Way. The friends loved coming to the lake together to hopscotch across the water on the lily pads. But they didn’t have time today.

  Sophie picked two honeysuckle flowers from a nearby bush. She handed one to Hattie. As they walked, they sucked the sweet nectar from the inside.

  A little while later, they heard a high-pitched voice coming from the branches above. “Sophie! Hattie!” the voice called.

  Sophie looked up. “Zoe!” she cried. She saw their friend from school flying down to say hello. “I forgot that your house is over here!”

  “Well,” said Zoe, “my flightless friends hardly ever come over to this side of the lake! I guess it feels too far from home. But for us birds, it’s just a quick flight into town.”

  Sophie and Hattie laughed. “I guess you’re right!” said Sophie. “But we’re going very far from home today.” She explained that she and Hattie were going to try to find Weedsnag Way. “Want to come with us?”

  “Oh! Oh, noooo!” said Zoe, fluttering nervously. “Weedsnag Way? No, thank you, I do not want to come.”

  And off Zoe flew without another word.

  What’s That Sound?

  “She didn’t say she’d ever been there,” Sophie pointed out.

  Hattie didn’t reply. The two friends walked on quietly through the woods.

  Sophie kept checking the map. “There should be a rocky hillside coming up,” Sophie said.

  Sure enough, they soon passed a rise with a rocky face on one side.

  “Next we should come to a brook with a big log fallen across it,” said Sophie.

  There, up ahead, was a babbling brook. The girls used the fallen log as a bridge to cross the water. Their route took them downstream along the brook. After a while, a large stream joined up with the brook. Now it was more like a river. The water got rougher and faster-moving.

  Sophie and Hattie continued on through the woods along the riverbank. Soon Sophie started to hear a sound. It seemed far off, but it was constant, like a gust of wind blowing on and on.

  As they walked, Sophie noticed that the sound was getting louder.

  Sophie looked at Hattie. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

  Hattie nodded. “What is it?”

  Sophie didn’t know. But she was curious to find out. She sniffed the air, but all she could smell was the water of the river. She hurried on. The sound got louder . . . and louder . . . and louder. Before long, Hattie had to shout to be heard over the roaring sound.

  “SOPHIE!” she cried. “I THINK WE SHOULD GO BACK!”

  Hattie had stopped walking. Sophie looked toward the sound, then back at Hattie. She didn’t want to go on without Hattie. But she did want to know what was making that noise! It felt as if they were so close. The roar almost seemed to shake the ground.

  In front of them were some tall reeds that blocked their view of the way ahead.

  Sophie scurried forward a few steps. She parted the reeds and poked her head through.

  What she saw took her breath away.

  “Hattie! Come look!” she shouted. “You have to see this!”

  Hattie hopped over. “Oh my . . .” was all she said.

  They were gazing out over a roaring waterfall. The rushing water caught the sunlight and glinted as it fell. Two rainbows made a double arc over the misty pool below.

  “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful!” said Hattie. The fear had left her face. In its place was a huge smile.

  “Now this is an adventure!” said Sophie.

  She pulled out the map to check their position. She studied it for several moments. “Huh,” she said. “That’s funny.”

  Hattie looked at the map too. “What’s funny?” she asked.

  Sophie looked up at Hattie. “It’s just . . .” she began. “The waterfall. It’s nowhere on the map!”

  Lost!

  Hattie and Sophie backtracked so they could talk without having to shout. Sophie opened her sack. She took out the water and the mint-leaf biscuits. While they nibbled, they looked at the map together.

  “You’re right,” said Hattie at last. “There’s no waterfall anywhere on the map.” She looked up at Sophie. “So what do we do now?”

  Sophie folded the map. She tucked it back into her sack, along with the water and biscuits. She sniffed the air and looked around. She wasn’t really sure which way to go. But if I tell Ha
ttie that, she’ll want to go home, thought Sophie.

  Sophie pointed toward the woods, away from the river. “Let’s go this way,” she said, trying to sound confident.

  Hattie nodded and followed along. “Phew!” she said. “I’m so glad that roar was coming from a beautiful waterfall and not . . . well, not something else!”

  They walked and walked, deeper and deeper into the forest. Sophie looked up, down, and all around. She was trying to take everything in.

  The trees here are different, Sophie noticed. She was used to the oak and ash and pine trees in Pine Needle Grove. But these trees were all very tall with smooth, white bark. Hattie seemed to notice too. Now and then, Sophie turned around to find Hattie studying a tree trunk. The first few times, Sophie didn’t think much of it. Then it seemed as if Hattie was stopping more and more. Each time, just as Sophie was about to ask what she was doing, Hattie hurried along to catch up.

  “Is it . . . darker here?” Hattie asked after some time had passed. “Or is it just my imagination?”

  Sophie looked up. The tall trees and their leaves were blocking out most of the sunshine. “It does seem very . . . shady,” Sophie said.

  They walked on a while longer. A cold gust of wind blew past. Sophie’s teeth started to chatter.

  “Is it colder here, too?” Hattie asked.