The Christmas Barn

The Christmas Barn

The 200-year old barn sat empty and lonely. No longer did horses stamp their feet inside his walls; cows didn’t warm the stalls with their breath; no sheep snuggled against each other to sleep the night away.

     The barn missed these animal friends. He missed the  chickens who used to gossip and mutter inside the feed troughs. He even missed the pigeons in his loft. 

  During the first years after the farmer left, a couple of owls took up residence in the barn and in the winter, a groundhog hibernated under the floor. But, as time passed, even these few visitors stopped coming.

At night, the cold wind moaned

The old barn sighed and his old walls groaned.

     But one day, a miracle happened. Three animals of the forest found the barn. They were long, stealthy animals, moving on silent feet, slipping through the door and tip-toeing to a dark corner.

     Hooray, the barn thought. Someone has come to live here at last. He straightened his walls and his roof creaked with joy.

     “We made a haul tonight, we did,” the first animal muttered. He slung a sack from off his shoulders. “Look at this—lots and lots of corn, two wonderful trout, and half a sack of acorns.”

     “I’ve never heard of a weasel eating acorns, Butch, but if you say so, I’ll give it a try.”

     “I say so,” Butch growled. “We can pull some bark off these logs and make a fine fire to cook our meal.”

     The old barn shook in the wind. Pull bark off his logs? No! Start a fire? What if it got out of hand and burned him to the ground? Suddenly, the newcomers didn’t sound so nice.

     Meanwhile, in the deepest part of the forest a chipmunk, a raccoon, and a squirrel walked in circles, wringing their hands.

     “It was those thieving weasels,” muttered the raccoon. “They stole my fish right from under my nose.”   

     “And, the corn I had stored for Christmas,” the chipmunk said, wiping a tear from her eye.

     The squirrel shook his tail. “All my lovely acorns are gone and the worst part is they destroyed my nest!”

     Another tear slipped from Chipmunk’s eye. ” Instead of having a feast and a warm home for Christmas, now we’ll have nothing.”

     “It’s no good to sit here feeling sorry for ourselves,” the raccoon said. “Let’s see if we can find more food.”

     The chipmunk wiped her eyes. “If we stick together, at least we’ll have each other.”

So the three friends started off through the forest. They scuffed the leaves looking for nuts. Chipmunk and Squirrel followed Raccoon to the creek for more fish, but the water had frozen over. Chipmunk knew there’d be no more corn in the corncrib because she had stolen the last from a farmer.

     The moon, rising over the hill, looked down on three tired, hungry forest folk. As night came and a cold wind ruffled their fur, these friends scrunched under some leaves and shivered.

     “Oh, dear, oh, dear,” cried the chipmunk. “We’ll starve or we’ll freeze, whichever comes first.”

     The squirrel flipped his tail over his nose and closed his eyes.

(Conclusion tomorrow.)