…it’s story time!
Princess Priscilla and the ‘Possum
Once upon a time there was a little princess named Priscilla. She lived in the Kingdom of Poppyseed, with her parents, King Paul and Queen Patricia. She also had an older brother, Prince Patrick, and a baby sister named Princess Penelope. The family lived in a castle with their cook, Pansy, and their gardener, Peter. Princess Priscilla loved two things very much–the color pink, and spending time in the gardens helping Peter do all kinds of gardening chores.
One spring morning, Princess Priscilla awoke and looked out her bedroom window and saw that it was a beautiful, sunny day, just right for working in the gardens. She washed her face, dressed in her favorite outfit, a pair of pink patched overalls, and headed downstairs.
In the kitchen, Priscilla found Pansy, who happened to be one of her best friends, and, after hugging her good morning, said, “I’m starved, Pansy. What’s for breakfast?”
Plump Pansy, pink in the face from washing a sinkful of sudsy dishes, replied, “It’s your favorite, little Princess– peanut butter pancakes.”
“Perfect!” Priscilla proclaimed and proceeded to clean her plate. “Pansy, that was the best! I’ll be able to help Peter a lot now.” And with that, she headed out to the gardens.
When she stepped outside the kitchen door, the little princess looked out on a beautiful sight. All around the yard of the castle were lovely flower beds filled with Priscilla’s favorite flowers, all in shades of pink, of course. There were predominantly petunias and poppies and pansies, but there were also pots and planters filled with painted daisies and portulaca, surrounded by borders of perennials, including sweet peas and periwinkle.
Behind the flower beds were the vegetable gardens where Peter, the family’s gardener and another of Priscilla’s best friends, was now working. He was planting some of Princess Priscilla’s favorite vegetables, such as pink-eyed purple-hulled peas, peppers, parsnips, potatoes and the royal family’s favorite, popcorn. Beyond the vegetable gardens was the vast orchard, filled with trees that would bear fruit late in the summer, including more of her favorites, juicy peaches, pears, plums and pomegranites
Princess Priscilla pulled on her garden gloves and her oldest sneakers, picked up the handles of her wheelbarrow and headed over to where Peter was at work. “Good morning, Peter,” she called out across the garden. “What can I do to help this morning?”
“A very good morning to you, Princess,” responded Peter, as he straightened from the furrow where he was carefully placing the eyes of seed potatoes. “Perhaps you’d like to start setting out the pickle plants.” This was Peter and Priscilla’s pet name for cucumbers; they much preferred thinking of the vines as pickle plants because dill pickles made from cucumbers were a huge favorite of both of them.
Princess Priscilla pushed her little wheelbarrow into the nearby greenhouse and loaded up several pots of pickle plants that Peter had started from seed late in the winter. They were now nice and bushy and ready to spread out when placed into the soil of the garden, warmed by the late spring sunshine. She filled a watering can with water from the spout and went back to the garden to find the row that Peter had marked for pickle plants. Down on hands and knees went Priscilla, scooping up handfuls of dirt, making nice holes for the tender little plants, patting the soil around the roots and giving them a good drink from her watering can.
After she finished planting the pickle plants, Princess Priscilla discovered that she was as thirsty as her little pickle plants had been. She went over to the spout, had a good drink from the hose and returned to where Peter was pulling up weeds from around the vines of the peas. He said, “If you’d like, you could carry these weeds in your little barrow around to the compost pile for me.” So off went the Princess, to the back of the greenhouse where she and Peter kept a lovely compost pile, filled with decaying leaves, grass clippings from the lawn, and potato peelings and turnip tops from Pansy’s kitchen. Nature would soon percolate the refuse into the very best sort of fertilizer for Peter’s garden.
As she dumped out the contents of her wheelbarrow into the compost pile, Princess Priscilla noticed a shiny, black, pointy thing sticking out at the edge of the leaves. It looked as if it could not be something that would compost, and she wondered if it might be something that Peter had lost. She leaned over and carefully pushed the pile of leaves back and discovered that the shiny object was attached to a fur-covered body. It was the nose of a little creature, the likes of which the princess had never before seen!
“What in the world is this?” exclaimed Princess Priscilla.
She was truly amazed when the little creature opened tiny black shoe-button eyes, looked up at Priscilla, and, in a tiny forlorn voice, said, “What in the world are you…and where in the world am I?”
Princess Priscilla’s eyes widened as she drew back. She certainly hadn’t expected an answer to her question.
“You are in my compost pile! And I am Princess Priscilla, of the Kingdom of Poppyseed,” she answered regally. “Perhaps you will now tell me who…and what…you are.”
“I’m lost is what I am,” the tiny thing said pitifully. “I am Peppy ’Possum and I want my mommy.
Princess Priscilla felt her heart melt as she gazed at the sad little animal. He had wobbly tears about to fall from his little cheeks, so she reached down and picked him up gently. “Who is your mommy, Peppy?” she asked.
“She’s Mommy ’Possum, of course,” sniffled Peppy, through his tears. “Would you help me find her, please?”
“Since you asked with such good manners, I’ll try to help you find your mommy,” answered Princess Priscilla. “Where do you live?”
“I live with Mommy, of course,” Peppy replied.
“But where does your mommy live?” insisted Priscilla
“I…I…don’t know!” wailed Peppy, sounding sadder and sadder all the time.
Priscilla held Peppy close and patted his little head. “Don’t cry, Peppy,” she said, “I’m sure we can find your mommy. Let’s get started.”
Peppy brushed away his tears as Princess Priscilla carried him down the path through the orchard, between rows of large peach trees, abloom with sweet pink blossoms. She looked up into the tree and saw a tidy little nest on a forked branch. The nest looked cozy and homey, so Priscilla said, “Peppy, could that little nest be your home? Do you and your mommy live here?”
Peppy peered up at the nest and replied, “No, I’ve never seen that place before. I don’t think I live in a nest. May we look some more?”
“Of course,” said Priscilla. “We’ll just look until we find your mommy. Then we will find your home.”
The path upon which Priscilla was walking led by a small lake. As she and Peppy passed the end of the lake where a spring-fed stream came into it, she noticed a slight movement in the edge of the water. There was a large mound of tree limbs and branches piled up across the stream’s entrance into the lake, and the little princess realized the something that had made the movement had swum under the pile of limbs.
“Peppy, look!” she exclaimed. “Maybe that was your mommy swimming in the water, going under that big mound of brush!”
Peppy peeked over Priscilla’s arm and saw the dark-looking water of the lake. He shivered and said, “No, Princess. I don’t like to be in water, and my mommy doesn’t, either. My home is NOT in that place.” With that, the little ’possum began to sniffle and cry again.
A furry, brown creature with two big teeth and a large, flat tail emerged from the mound, swam to the bank, looked balefully up at the pair and said, “This is the home of Benjamin Beaver, and that is me… and opossums are decidedly NOT welcome here!”
Priscilla briskly walked on as she said, “Oh, Peppy, that was a beaver den! I should have known you don’t live here. But don’t worry, we’ll keep on looking, as long as it takes. We’ll find your mommy, I promise.”
The two new friends rounded the end of the lake and their path led them into a park. Priscilla knew this was a friendly place; she and her family often played and picnicked here. She walked along, looking into the bushes on either side of the path, hoping to spot something that resembled Peppy.
There were squirrels playing tag on the branches of the trees overhead, but Princess Priscilla knew Peppy didn’t live with them. Priscilla pointed out two tiny chipmunks nibbling last year’s pecan shells under some bushes, but they did not look anything like Peppy. A tortoise lumbered across the path in front of them but pulled in head and legs as soon as they got near. “My mommy doesn’t have a hard shell like that,” whispered Peppy. “She’s soft and cuddly, like mommy ’possums are supposed to be.”
Princess Priscilla was beginning to wonder if they would ever find Peppy’s mommy. Perhaps she wasn’t in the park or anywhere in the Kingdom of Poppyseed! As Priscilla thought about their predicament, she decided to rest for a while under a big persimmon tree. Cradling the little creature, she sat down, leaned her back against the tree trunk and wondered what to do next. Just then, a worried-sounding voice from above called out, “Peppy? Is that you?”
Peppy perked up and said, “Mommy? Where are you?”
“I’m up here,” was the answer. “Where in the world have you been? I’ve been so worried!”
Priscilla and Peppy looked up into the persimmon tree and saw something sitting on the lowest branch. It looked very much like Peppy, except it was larger. There was the same kind of pointy black nose, except it was a little larger. There was the same kind of skinny tail and grayish fur. And on its back were two more little creatures that looked exactly like Peppy.
“Mommy! I got lost and Princess Priscilla found me! Hey, Pamela, I saw a beaver! Pesky, did you eat all the persimmons?” Peppy was talking so fast that Priscilla could hardly keep up with what he was saying. He climbed down off Priscilla’s lap, as his family made their way down the tree to him.
“Princess Priscilla, thank you for bringing my baby home,” Peppy’s mother said gratefully, as she nudged Peppy onto her back. “He’s still small and should never have wandered away.”
As Peppy settled down alongside his brother and sister, Priscilla asked, “Just where do you all live?”
“This is where we live!” chimed the three littlest opossums. “We’re home!”
“Let me explain,” said their mother helpfully. “Baby opossums like Peppy, Pamela and Pesky are very tiny when they are born. I have a special pouch, right here on my belly, where they stay for the first couple of months after their birth. Then they move onto my back for another month or two, until they are bigger and better able to fend for themselves.”
“I was sleeping yesterday when Peppy wandered off. He has lots of energy, even for a little ’possum. I’ll have to watch him more carefully,” she concluded, as she snuggled the three little ones closer.
“Peppy was right when he said he lived with his mommy,” Priscilla smiled and thought to herself. “I had no idea he meant that he lived ON his mommy.”
“Little ones grow up so fast,” Mommy ’Possum sighed. “It won’t be long before these little ones are big enough to begin taking care of themselves, and then I won’t carry them everywhere I go. Now we’re off…thank you again for rescuing Peppy.”
Priscilla waved goodbye to the little family as she turned and skipped back home. “Peter will be wondering where I’ve gone,” Priscilla thought, but she was happy to know she had helped reunite little Peppy ’Possum with his mommy, sister and brother. It was fun, too, to think about the three baby opossums riding around in their mother’s pouch before they were big enough to climb onto her back. The little princess had read about kangaroos, and she thought that opossums were much the same when it came to babies in pouches.
As she came out of the park, around the lake, and through the orchard, Priscilla thought about all the different kinds of homes that animals lived in. The turtle had his shell, the beaver his mound of branches, the birds had nests, and Peppy had his mommy’s pouch. But when she saw the beautiful pink castle of the Kingdom of Poppyseed, where her own family lived, the little princess felt that she had the very best home of all.
“Peter, I’m back!” she called, as she raced to the garden. “What can I plant now?”
“How about pumpkin seeds?” her friend suggested.
“Hmm,” thought the little princess. “Didn’t someone live in a pumpkin shell?”
The End
Recent Comments