Snoutie and His Friends

Many were deep asleep in their warm homes and planned on waking up only in the spring. Others had a great deal of fun running through the snow-covered fields. Housey Mousey and Romantic Mousey was entranced by the sight of the tops of the pine trees in the bright morning sun, and she sighed with delight because the glimmering winter Forest seemed so fantastically beautiful to her. Croaky the Feel Good Froggy nibbled happily at an icicle with a gnat frozen inside, while Loppy the Believing Bunny hopped all over the place and happily slipped and slid in circles over the frozen pond. Meanwhile, Burly Boary went cross-country skiing through the forest, noisily sucking in the fresh, icy air through his wet snout, and Young Ostrich, who was seeing snow for the very first time, looked in amazement at the deep tracks his long legs left in the snow.

At this time of the year, Snoutie and his friends enjoyed having snowball fights. On that day, after they had played to their heart’s content, the friends decided to build a big snowman. Sniffling busily, Burly Boary spent a long time rolling a snowball across the field to make it grow bigger and bigger. Finally, when it was almost as big as Boary himself, Boary grunted contentedly and stopped in the exact middle of the meadow. Housey Mousey and Croaky the Feel Good Froggy rolled up another snowball, which was just a bit smaller than Boary’s, and raised it up on top of the first snowball. For his part, Young Ostrich continued to walk slowly around the field, lifting his feet up high and never ceasing to be amazed by his deep tracks. Snoutie had brought a red pail and a large broom from home, and Loppy the Believing Bunny had dragged over an orange carrot from his supplies.

Suddenly a small snowball rolled down from the hill where the big oak tree grew. It skittered down the slope and stopped right next to Snoutie. The friends were a little surprised, but they picked up this snowball and made it into a head for the snowman. Then they gave him a carrot for a nose. Before they could complete their work by presenting the snowman with his broom, the snowman suddenly came alive and blinked his eyes. The carrot fell down to the ground, and a small, black beak appeared in its place.

“Holey moley!” croaked Croaky, so baffled he had to sit down on a stump.

“Winter wonders!” squeaked an amazed Housey Mousey, stuffing her frozen paws deeper into her warm mittens.

“Young Ostrich, come here! The snowman has a beak!” shouted Snoutie. “Maybe you know who he is?”

But Young Ostrich couldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. Meanwhile, the snowman’s head toppled off onto the ground, and two little pink feet appeared from under it and started stamping down the snow. The snowball with the black beak tripped and tumbled around the field on its pink feet, peeping softly. But Burly Boary was in its way. The snowball flew into Boary and broke into pieces. Boary grunted crossly, and suddenly a Little Penguin appeared out of nowhere in the place of the snowball.

Little Penguin shook the snow off his feet, looked at Boary, tilted his head to the side, blinked his eyes, and squeaked loudly:

“I’m hungry!”

At first Boary had no idea what to say, but he didn’t want anyone to see how confused he was, so he said the first thing that came into his head:

“How about some tea with acorns?”

Without reacting to Boary’s kind offer, Little Penguin turned around and ran quickly over to Housey Mousey, who was standing nearby. Economical Mousey, who always had an extra piece of cheese in her pocket, smiled and handed it to Little Penguin. He poked at the cheese with his beak, squeaked, ran over to Snoutie, and gave him a light peck.

“I’m hungry!” he peeped again.

“What do penguins eat?” asked Snoutie of no one in particular.

“Fish!” called a voice from the edge of the field. “All penguins love fish, my friends,” continued Beaver the Builder. “Look, I’ve just caught some fish from under the ice for the cubs. Have some, little one,” said Beaver, placing a bucket filled with fresh fish in front of Little Penguin.

Just how the strange newcomer appeared in the Big Forest remained a mystery to its creatures. But after receiving permission from his Mama and Papa, Snoutie decided to let his new little friend stay at his house, at least for a while.

When it was especially cold outside and a freezing wind was blowing or wet snow was falling, Snoutie and Little Penguin would play happily in the house. Snoutie showed his friend his train tracks and his red engine with blue cars. Little Penguin gaily chased the train around the room, peeping loudly, and pretending to be the engine’s horn. He also loved to scramble up on a chest of drawers and sit very quietly until someone found him.