This part of the trail was an uphill climb with rocky terrain, almost too rocky to be pulling a wagon. Poochy was determined though and at only 2.75 inches tall he was much stronger than his small size would suggest. With a few more tugs at the wagon, he made it to the the meadow’s clearing where the Twin Oaks stood. He decided to rest under the shade of the tree for a little while and enjoy a snack. He reached into his front and center pocket, the one on the bib of his overalls, and pulled out a small paper sack that contained pea-nut butter crackers. Poochy loved sandwiching gooey peanut butter between two soda crackers. The peanut butter would ooze through the little holes in the crackers and your paws would collect just enough to be worth licking. He bit into one and the overwhelming joy spread through is his small body. The crunchiness and saltiness of the cracker, the nuttiness of the peanut butter and the smell of the peanuts all filled his senses.
A westerly breeze blew over him. He opened his canteen and took a sip of water. He admired the flowers in the field from his perspective under the shade of the ancient twin oaks. He wondered what he might find today in the Blossom Valley.
You see, Poochy is a collector. He is collector of small things. No, actually, he’s a collector of small lost things. You would be quite amazed at the small items Poochy has found on his scavenger journeys and has hauled back to his home in Gum Springs. From May through October, around the mid part of the months, Poochy gets his wagon, a few flat balloons for his pocket, a canteen of water and wears his overalls with plenty of pockets and sets out for a week-long journey to search for small lost items. Most items he finds have likely fallen from others’ wagons, balloons, baskets, pockets or whatever they may be wearing. He has found smallrhinestones that have probably fallen out of jewelry settings. Those are always fun to find, they glisten in the sunlight like a beacon, as if they want to be found - “look at me, over here, see me?”, they seem to call out. He finds thimbles, buttons, ribbons, pen nibs, whistles quite often. But today, Poochy wonders if he’ll find anything interesting.
This fine Mid-May day found Poochy in the Blossom Valley, a few weeks after the May Day Express rolled through here and stopped with passengers who were aboard the May Day Express “Tour de Fleur”. Every May 1st, the Blossom Valley Railroad (BVR) has the event and folks from all over the Hinterlands converge in Honey Grove or Discovery Cove to get their tickets to ride the BVR May Day Express. The train is usually decked out in flowers, and folks wear fancy clothes to ride the train through the countryside and make the loop around the southern parts of the Hinterlands. The train typically stops in the meadow, near the Fairy Prairie, where the Twin Oaks are located. Folks will then, step off the train to picnic in the midst of the flowers. Picnic hampers, pretty baskets, bags of treats, thermoses, tea sets and other pretty dishes are among items that folks unload from the train to enjoy the stop. Poochy has found pearls here. He imagines a necklace that may have come unclasped and all the pearls slide right off the string. Other fancy folks bending over, stooping down, maybe even crawling on the ground searching for each precious pearl.
You never know what can be found and what the story is behind each object that he finds and carts back to his home.After one more sip from the canteen, Poochy rolled up the paper sack and shoved it down into his pocket, saving the rest of the snacks for later. He stood up, and grabbed the handle of his wagon and began surveying the area. He saw something moving in the grass. It was waving like a flag in the breeze. He pushed the tall grasses aside with one paw and he pulled his wagon with the other. He must be getting close, as he couldn’t see it anymore. He climbed up on a small stone where his head was higher than the grasses and looked to the right and to the left. There it was, just a few more paces to the left. He climbed down from the stone and moved towards the object. After 9 paces, he looked up to the tips of the blades of grasses and saw the green ribbon blowing in the breeze. The ribbon was wrapped around a few blades of grass. He used his wagon to stand on while untangling the ribbon from itself as well as the grass. It was a soft ribbon, made of velvet. He wondered if it belonged to a young girl who may have worn the ribbon around her ears or maybe it was tied into a bow to decorate a straw hat. Once untangling the ribbon, he put it in his wagon and then noticed a patch. It had an intricate design on it that looked like a tent and trees stitched into it. It was green, gold and tan. In gold letters, it read, “Camp HoopLa HooRay”. Someone must have gone to camp and lost their patch. Such a shame to lose such a memento. He put it in the wagon. He found another stone to climb upon so he could get an idea of where he was in relation to the twin oaks. After seeing the trees about 20 yards away, he decided to walk in circles, making a sort of spiral around the trees, being sure to head towards the trees so as to comb the area thoroughly for anything else that may have been dropped.
A butterfly flew overhead. It had orange spots and mostly yellow wings. From where Poochy was, the sunlight filtered through the wings as if it were a stained glass window. He admired the butterfly as it lighted on a flower. Bees could be heard in the meadow. They were busy pollinating. Busy in the business of honey making. Honey making...something Poochy thought about often. He liked honey and he was thankful for bees and how they work their magic taking pollen from beautiful flowers and making honey from it. A shadow passed over Poochy. He shielded his eyes from the sunlight and looked up to see a meadowlark fly over.
He kept walking and pulling. He was happy the items in the wagon were light. Suddenly he stubbed his toe. OUCH! But the offending object wasn’t to be seen when he looked down. Puzzled by where it could be as well as what it could be, Poochy looked around him. Something glimmered in the light about 5 paces in front of him. It was rolling to a stop. As he approached the round object, he realized what it was. A MARBLE! A marble the size of a wee soccer ball! He couldn’t believe it. How thrilling this was. As he leaned down to pick it up, he noticed the red and blue striations running through the clear glass-like appearance. It was absolutely beautiful and was a prize find for Poochy. He loaded the marble into his wagon and thought about where he might camp tonight.
As he finished his scavenging, he found himself back under the twin oak trees. A rabbit was there. The rabbit greeted Poochy and suggested Poochy crawl on top of him and they would go to the creek together. The rabbit assured Poochy his treasures would be safe. So Poochy climbed atop the rabbit’s back and the bunny hopped to Bee Creek. It was there, Poochy filled his canteen and found a few mushrooms and a minnow to eat. The rabbit took Poochy back to where the little bear was going to sleep for the night. The two new friends decided they would snuggle together to keep warm overnight. And so there they stayed until morning lightwhen the two parted ways. The rabbit to his home in Fantasy Forest and Poochy, back to Gum Springs.