A Warm Winter Home
“Brrr!” whistled Groundhog, poking his head out from under a pile of frosty leaves. “It’s s-s-so cold today.”
The first frost had sent the last leaves fluttering off the trees, signaling the start of winter.
Groundhog did not like being outside in the cold. “The only place to be in this weather is underground in a warm burrow,” he said through chattering teeth.
But Groundhog was hungry for apples. He had been waiting for weeks for the last autumn apples to ripen on the trees. After all, apples are Groundhog’s favorite food.
Suddenly, he had an idea.
“I know!” said Groundhog. “First, I will make a warm burrow for the winter. Then, I will come back here to eat the apples.”
Leaving footprints in the frost, he left to dig a warm burrow under a hollow tree stump at the edge of the woods.
“I’m s-s-so hungry,” he whistled as he dug. “It would be lovely to have s-s-sweet juicy apples.”
But all the digging had made Groundhog very sleepy. It was so warm and pleasant inside the burrow that he decided not to go back outside to the apple tree.
Instead, he curled up in the deepest part of the burrow, covering himself with his bushy tail, and went to sleep snoring gently and dreaming of s-s-sweet apples.
Now, Opossum had been searching all morning for a warm shelter and he was about to give up when he spotted the hollow tree stump at the edge of the woods.
“Hurray!” shouted Opossum. “That tree stump will make a perfect shelter for winter.”
But there were no leaves near the tree stump to make a fresh bed.
“Hmm,” said Opossum, “It would be lovely to have a soft bed. There are still plenty of dry leaves in the woods. I know! I will carry some leaves from the woods with my tail.”
So he went back into the woods to fetch dry leaves to make a bed.
Opossum could smell the delicious apple tree on his way back through the woods.
“Yummy, apples!” said Opossum.
Opossum climbed up the tree to pick the last ripe apples, looping them in his tail along with the leaves to carry them to his new shelter.
But Opossum was surprised when he dropped the leaves and apples into the hollow tree stump. The apples rolled one by one down the tunnel into the deepest part of the burrow, waking up Groundhog.
“Who’s-s-s there?” whistled a sleepy voice from below.
Opossum curiously peered inside the tree stump.
“Opossum!” said Groundhog poking his head out of the tree stump. “What are you doing at the top of my burrow?”
“Groundhog!” said Opossum. “What are you doing at the bottom of my shelter?”
Groundhog explained that he had spent all morning digging a winter burrow under the hollow tree stump.
Opossum looked very unhappy to hear that.
“What’s wrong, Opossum?”
“I spent all morning searching for a warm shelter,” sad Opossum sadly. “Then I gathered food and leaves to make a soft bed, and I brought them all here.”
Groundhog quickly realized that by uniting, they would have greater strength to survive the cold weather.
“What a wonderful idea!” he whistled, enthusiastically. “After all, I am good at digging, s-s-so it’s best that I dug OUR warm burrow. You are good at carrying, s-s-so it’s best that you carried OUR s-s-supplies …And by the way, are those apples I s-s-smell?”
Opossum grinned when he realized what Groundhog meant. Each had contributed something unique to the winter home, and if one part had been missing, it would not be complete.
“Yes,” said Opossum, “I brought apples for OUR breakfast!”
So it was that the two friends enjoyed a delicious breakfast of apples and snuggled together for a warm winter nap.
