~
“I got one – I got one!” shrieked Pepper, as she tried desperately to hold on to the slippery wet fish trying to jump out of her paws. “What do I do with it now?” She turned to Polly. Polly cast around in her mind. The fish Father had brought home hadn’t been like this – they had been still and silent, not leaping around like grasshoppers on a warm day. As she tried to think of something her eyes rested on the opposite bank and suddenly the fish problem seemed unimportant.
“Look!” Polly pointed in sudden fright. Pepper and Fred obediently looked where she pointed and their mouths dropped open. The bank was moving! The fish dropped to the raft, forgotten, and leapt back into the river, thankful for the reprieve.
Polly looked frantically around. The rope which had been tethering them to dry land trailed uselessly in the river. Her gaze went to the bank where it had been fastened and, to her horror, she saw Walter Weasel standing there, laughing nastily and waving to them.
“Have a nice trip!” he called. “Remember to send me a postcard of wherever you end up!”
Pepper and Fred crowded anxiously round Polly.
“What shall we do?” they pestered her.
“Shut up a minute – I’m trying to think!” she said. She cast around the possibilities in her mind. The river was fast and the current was already carrying them much much faster than they could walk. She pulled the wet rope onto the raft and tried throwing to the bank, in the hopes that it would catch onto something, but the current had taken them into the middle of the stream and the rope wasn’t long enough. “We need to somehow get to the bank. Perhaps if I hold one of you right out over the water, you can lean over and grab onto the grass or something.” She turned to look at them thoughtfully.
“No way!” Pepper squeaked, and she scrambled back to the furthest point of the raft. “You might drop me!”
“Don’t look at me!” Fred said, in his turn.
“Hmm – you’re too short anyway,” Polly wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think you’d be able to reach! Perhaps if we unfasten one of the poles that this thing is made from, we could use that to reach the side.” They all regarded the raft they sat on thoughtfully.
“But, if we unfasten the sticks it might all fall to bits,” pointed out Fred. “And then we’ll fall off!”
“Well, if we only unfasten one, see where the ropes tie it together, and make sure we tie them up tightly again, it should work! Look, you two unfasten it at that end and I’ll do this one, and make sure you fasten it back together again.” They set to work. The string that tied the poles together had swollen in the water and it was difficult, but the hedgehogs had sharp claws and they were eventually able to detach one of the twigs from the raft and re-tie the ropes tightly. Polly checked Pepper and Fred’s knots and gave everything a final tug. It seemed to have worked. The raft was holding together and they had a long strong stick.
“OK, now let’s see if this works,” Polly held tightly to the raft with one paw and reached out with the pole as far as she could. It was almost close enough but she couldn’t quite catch the pole on any of the greenery which bordered the river. She slumped down in defeat. Suddenly Fred perked up.
“I’ve got an idea!” he said excitedly.
Polly sighed. “Go on, what is it?”
“Well, perhaps we can use the stick to push us closer to the bank.”
Polly frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if we lower the pole into the river until it hits the bottom and then push on it – it should move us closer to the bank, like when you push yourself off to go down the slide in the morning.” Fred’s face was eager with excitement over his plan. Polly closed her eyes, trying to see the idea in her mind’s eye.
“Hmm – it might work at that! Good idea little bro!” She grabbed the stick.
“Oh, oh, can I do it?” Fred begged. “It was my idea after all!”
“Can I do it too?” piped up Pepper.
“I tell you what – we can ALL have a go, but Fred can go first, as it was his idea.” She stepped back and passed the pole to Fred. Fred stood at the edge of the raft, took a deep breath, plunged the pole into the water until it hit the bottom and pushed with all his might.
Sure enough, the raft began to move towards the river bank, but when Fred tried to pull the pole out of the water, it wouldn’t budge. He felt the raft move from beneath his feet.
“It’s stuck!” he yelled, tugging frantically.
“Let go!” Pepper and Polly shouted together but it was too late. The raft was already moving them quickly away and, even as they shouted, the wooden surface moved from underneath Fred’s frantically scrabbling feet. The raft continued its way down river, totally oblivious to Polly and Pepper’s aghast faces as Fred clung desperately to the pole and watched his sisters floating rapidly away from him.
“What do we do? What do we DO?” Pepper screamed at her sister.
“I don’t KNOW!” Polly yelled back at her. They stared at each other in horrified silence and Pepper began to cry. Suddenly a streamlined brown head popped out of the water next to them.
“’Ello there!” it said. Polly and Pepper’s heads snapped round.
“Who, who are you?” Pepper sniffed.
“Oliver Otter, at your service, ladies,” the otter winked.
“Oh, do you think you can help us?” and she poured out the whole story. Oliver turned and regarded Fred, still visible as a rapidly dwindling speck up river.
“No trouble at all.” He ducked under water for a second and the water was suddenly full of otters, with one V-shaped ripple heading upstream towards Fred. The strong water mammals surrounded the raft and began to push the relieved hedgehogs back the way they had come. Very soon they caught up with the rescued Fred, who was sitting on the back of an otter and grinning like all his dreams had come true. The otter he was riding piled him unceremoniously onto the raft and Pepper jumped on him with relief, almost crushing him with her hug. Polly gave him a quick smile. “Thought we’d finally got rid of you then, little bro!” she said, ruffling the spikes on top of his head.
“Not a chance,” he said, grinning back at her. In less time than the hedgehogs would have thought possible, they had been pushed right back to where the raft belonged.
“What were you kids doing on the raft in the first place?” Oliver wanted to know.
“We were trying to catch some fish – we thought it’d be a nice surprise for our Mother,” Polly explained sadly. “I suppose it’ll be beetle soup again tonight.” She heaved a sigh. Oliver exchanged glances with the other otters and they all dived briefly below the ripples and each came up with a fish in their mouths, which they laid on the grass.
“Little present for you,” Oliver grinned at them. “Promise you’ll come back and visit!”
“Oh, we promise!” the hedgehogs called, as the otters dived back into the water. They waved until the sleek brown heads were out of sight and then they stuffed all the fish in their backpacks and started on their way home.
And that night, they all had fish for tea.
~
As for Walter Weasel, well he got lost trying to find his way back. Without the hedgehogs to follow he couldn’t remember which way to go. He was finally found, cold and scared, by a patrol eagle who brought him home to Keltie Wood. When Mrs Weasel found out what a naughty thing he had done, she marched him right round to Mrs Hedgehog’s house and made him apologise to Polly, Pepper and Fred for the scare he had given them. But he had an unpleasant glint in his eye as he did so that made them think they hadn’t seen the last of Walter Weasel.
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River Adventure (A Keltie Wood story) Page 3