Sonny Squirrel woke up filled with excitement. The blueberry season in the forest had started. He quickly ran over to his friends Denise Deer and Cho Chipmunk. Together they would run from blueberry bush to blueberry bush through their part of the forest. “Let’s go, let’s go!”, screamed Sonny when he arrived at their house. “Summer has started and the forest is filled with blueberries.”
His friends quickly woke up and dashed outside. Picking blueberries had been a tradition for years for these animals. So naturally they knew all the good spots in the forest. “Let’s go to blueberry paradise first”, said Cho excitedly. This was the part of the forest with most sunlight, so the blueberries grew large and juicy here first.
But when the animals arrived, all they could see were the pedicels. These are the little stalks that attach the berries to the plant. “Someone has already eaten all the blueberries”, shouted Denise Deer in disbelief. “Yes”, said an owl from high up in the tree. “A little man with only two legs has just eaten them all.”
The animals couldn’t believe it. But they weren’t easily discouraged. “Follow me to the secret berry garden”, said Sonny Squirrel to his friends. This is a secret part of the forest with hardly any visitors. “Surely the berries must still be there.”
But what do you think they found when they arrived at the secret berry garden? Yes, you’ve guessed it. More empty plants. And again, an owl from high up in the trees told them: “A little man with only two legs has just eaten them all.”
This happened over and over again at all their favorite spots until the animals had enough and decided to rest under a tree. They were sad because the blueberry season is their favorite part of the year. Tired and disgruntled, they came up with a plan. “We must find out who this little man with only two legs is”, said Denise Deer.
“But how do we do that?” asked Cho Chipmunk. “He has already eaten all the berries in the forest without us even noticing.”
The animals thought and thought, until Sonny Squirrel exclaimed: “I have an idea! I still have a couple of blueberries in my freezer from last year. We can make a trail of blueberries that leads into the cave at Blueberry Hill. The little man will surely find the berries and follow the trail. We’ll wait for him there and teach him a lesson.”
The friends loved to plan and so they planted a trail of berries.
In a different part of the forest, a little man of only four years old was taking a nap. His name was Leo and he had eaten all the blueberries in the forest. His tongue was purple, his hands were red and his belly was round. He loved, no really really loved blueberries, so he was a happy little man.
But suddenly, he started dreaming about more blueberries. He had a vision of a trail of the last berries in the forest and sort of woke up. In a state of trance he started moving through the forest towards those berries. When he found the trail, his eyes went wide open and he started eating the blueberries right away. He ate and ate until came up to a little cave, he stepped in and looked Denise Deer, Cho Chipmunk and Sonny Squirrel right into the eye.
“So, so mister”, shouted Sonny Squirrel outraged. “You are the little man that ate all the berries of the forest.”
“Yes, and now we’re all hungry”, added Denise Deer filled with anger.
What you may not know is that chipmunks get very angry when they’re hungry. They call them hangry animals. So Cho Chipmunk didn’t even say anything; he immediately lashed out towards Little Leo’s underbelly. The chipmunk didn’t hit him hard enough to hurt him, but certainly hard enough to score him.
The little man ran off scared and started crying underneath a tree nearby. He didn’t want the animals to be angry at him. He did not mean any harm. He just loved blueberries. Sure, he had maybe overdone it a little bit by eating 35.932 blueberries.
The animals, who had followed him, started to feel a little bit sad for Little Leo. So they came up to him and told him: “Your heart seems in the right place. You’ve just been a little bit indulgent. And we must admit that you’re an amazing blueberry picker.”
This made Leo feel a lot better and suddenly he started to smile. “I have an idea”, he said. “Tomorrow, I’ll go to the forest nearby. There’s enough blueberries there for everyone. I’ll bring a large amount of berries back to you and we can forget about all of this.”
And that’s exactly what he did. The next day, he brought so many blueberries that they all had a feast together. They had such a nice time together that they became good friends. And from that year onwards, the animals and Little Leo would go blueberry picking together and share the foods amongst eachother.
