A Day in the Meadow

In the morning, Rusty the fox went to a meadow full of flowers. The sun was warm, and the grass reached up to his nose. It smelled of clover and chamomile. “Today I will meet everyone who lives in the meadow!” called Rusty. And off he ran: hop, hop, hop!

A ladybug was sitting on a daisy. But when Rusty came running, she hid under a leaf. The butterfly fluttered high up. The little bee buzzed, and zip, she was gone. Rusty’s ears drooped, and his tail hung down sadly. That made him sad.

“I have to look faster,” he thought. He ran around and peeked under the leaves. “Hey! Come out! Show yourselves!” he called, louder and louder. But the only sound was the grass: shh, shh. Nobody came out. Rusty flopped down on the ground, all out of breath.

A snail was sliding along a blade of grass, with his house on his back. He was the slowest of all. “Where are you hurrying to?” asked Rusty. “Nowhere. I like to look at the world slowly.” He stretched out his feelers and smiled.

“Everyone runs away from me,” sighed Rusty. “I used to run too,” said the snail. “So fast that my house bounced up and down!” Rusty burst out laughing. “And I didn’t see anything,” the snail added. “Now I sit very quietly and look very slowly. Try it with me.”

Rusty sat down next to the snail and took a deep breath. “I sit very still, I look very slowly,” he whispered. After a moment, the ladybug came out from under the leaf. “I have seven spots!” she said proudly. Rusty counted: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven!

“I sit very still, I look very slowly,” Rusty whispered again. A butterfly fluttered by. It landed on the clover. Its wings were yellow as the sun. It opened them and closed them, opened them and closed them. It looked like a flower that could fly.

“I sit very still, I look very slowly,” he whispered for the third time. After the butterfly came a little bee. Buzz, buzz, she was gathering sweet nectar. Nectar is the juice hidden inside flowers. “I’ll take the nectar to my hive,” buzzed the bee. “It will turn into honey!”

The snail tucked into his house for a nap. Suddenly something went chirp, chirp in the grass! A green grasshopper sat on a blade of grass. Rusty’s paws wanted to run all by themselves. But Rusty stayed right where he was. “I sit very still, I look very slo…” he began, all alone. Hop! The grasshopper jumped right onto his nose!

Rusty didn’t move a whisker, only his eyes were smiling. After a little while the grasshopper hopped back into the grass. The snail peeked out of his house. “The meadow came to you all by itself,” he whispered. Together they looked slowly. The meadow was even more beautiful.

In the evening, the sun turned pink. The ladybug fell asleep under her leaf. The bee took the last nectar to the hive. Rusty walked home, step by little step. In the grass, crickets were softly playing. In his den, he curled up and closed his eyes. Good night, Rusty.