by Poppy Green
Sophie nodded. “That definitely was a brisk breeze,” she said. She pulled her scarf from her sack. She wrapped it around Hattie’s neck. “There. Better?”
Nearby, an owl hooted loudly in the trees. Startled, Hattie jumped. “Sophie, where are we?”
Sophie looked down at her map. “I . . . I’m not . . .” Sophie didn’t want to say it, but she honestly wasn’t sure where they were.
Hattie’s look of fear was back, and now Sophie was feeling it too. She checked her sack. They had only a few biscuits left and little bit of water. But worst of all, they were lost! And it was all Sophie’s fault! What if they couldn’t find their way home? Sophie couldn’t help thinking: Would they end up just like the squirrel in the story?
Just then, there was a rustling in the bushes right beside them. Sophie and Hattie grabbed each other’s hands. Too afraid to run, they stood frozen to their spot.
Then they saw it—a bushy gray tail sticking up from behind some leafy branches!
Sophie and Hattie squeezed each other tighter. They kept their eyes glued on the tail as it moved toward them—closer and closer and closer.
The Way to Weedsnag Way
With a sudden crack of branches, something with gray fur landed right at Sophie’s and Hattie’s feet.
“Aaaaaahhh!” they cried. They covered their eyes in fear of the ferocious, monstrous . . .
“Squirrel?” said Sophie, peeking between her hands.
With a flick of his twitchy tail, the squirrel tilted his head to one side, then smiled a big, friendly smile! “Afternoon! The name’s Harry. Harry Higgins. Sorry if I scared you. I couldn’t help overhearing. Do you need help finding your way?”
Sophie and Hattie looked at each other in disbelief—and relief. “Why yes!” Sophie replied. “We could use a little advice.”
“Well, well, well,” said Harry, “I’m happy to help. I’ve lost my way before. No fun, no fun. Where are you headed?”
Hattie spoke up. “Have you heard of a place called Weedsnag Way?”
“Where the emerald berries grow?” Sophie added.
Harry Higgins’ eyes went wide with surprise. “Emerald berries? Weedsnag Way? That’s where you’re going?”
Sophie got ready for another warning—just like Zoe’s.
But she was wrong. Instead, Harry Higgins wiggled his whiskers and chuckled. “Of course I know how to get there. That’s where I live!”
“It is?” cried Sophie.
“Are we close?” asked Hattie.
Harry nodded. “Follow me!”
Sophie couldn’t believe their luck. She’d been about to give up—to tell Hattie they were lost. But they’d found the perfect guide!
They excitedly followed Harry. He led them down a slope, over a rock pile, through a curtain of weeping willows—and then he stopped.
“Here we are!” he said. “Welcome to Weedsnag Way.”
Sophie peeked around him. For the second time that day, she gasped at the sight she saw. Hundreds of emerald-green bushes lined the path on both sides. Long branches arched over the path, making a tunnel. The sparkling berries—dozens on each bush—made it look like a deep green sky filled with twinkling stars.
Sophie, Hattie, and Harry walked slowly through the arcade. Sophie reached out and picked one of the berries. She squished it between her fingers. The berry juice was a gorgeous shimmering green with blue flecks.
“Perfect!” Sophie cried. “What an amazing paint color this will make!” She explained to Harry how she’d seen a dress dyed with emerald berry juice. “That’s why I was so eager to find some.”
Harry nodded. “Oh, I understand,” he said. “Do you know . . . I was drawn here by the emerald berries too. I used to make and sell hats. One day I saw a swan wearing a beautiful hat pin made with emerald berries. I wanted to make one just like it. So I came out here to find Weedsnag Way.”
Harry paused, then added, “Unfortunately, I got a little lost. I found Weedsnag Way. Then I realized I didn’t know the way home! Can you believe it?” Harry laughed. “It turned out okay, though. I decided I liked it here very much and wanted to stay.” He sighed a small sigh. “But now and then I do miss Pine Needle Grove.”
Hattie’s jaw dropped. Sophie’s eyes went wide. Sophie and Hattie looked at each other.
Harry Higgins was the squirrel from the story—the squirrel who never returned from Weedsnag Way!
Harry Higgins’s Home
“Harry!” Sophie exclaimed. “We’re from Pine Needle Grove too!”
Harry chittered in surprise. “You are?” he cried. “Well, what a day, what a day! Visitors from Pine Needle Grove!” He scurried off down Weedsnag Way. Then he stopped. He turned and waved for Sophie and Hattie to follow. “This calls for tea! Come, I’ll show you my house.”
Sophie and Hattie followed Harry halfway down Weedsnag Way. There, a tall tree grew out from the middle of the berry bushes.
Sophie and Hattie watched as Harry scrambled up the tree trunk. When he got up to a large branch, he turned and looked down. “Stand back!” he called.
The girls stepped back as Harry dropped something down. It unrolled down the length of the trunk. The end of it came to rest at the base of the tree.
“A rope ladder!” Sophie said in surprise.
“I’ve been waiting to use this! Come on up!” Harry called.
Hattie climbed carefully up. Sophie followed right behind her.
“Welcome,” said Harry, standing at the door of his little squirrel house. It was built right where the branch and the tree trunk met.
Harry led them inside a comfortable one-room home. Sophie looked around at the tiny wood stove, the handmade table and stools, and the pine-wood bed with its pine-needle mattress.
“Please, sit!” said Harry. “Make yourself at home while I get the tea going.”
But Sophie was too excited to sit. “Mr. Higgins,” Sophie said, “we’ve heard of you!”
“Yes!” cried Hattie. “You’re famous in Pine Needle Grove!”
Harry wrinkled his nose. “Famous? Me?” he said. “But . . . what do you mean?”
Together, Sophie and Hattie explained. They told Harry that when he hadn’t returned, folks back home decided something very awful had happened to him.
“Everyone thinks Weedsnag Way is dangerous and scary,” said Sophie.
Harry shook his head. “Oh, no, no, no. You two can plainly see. It’s not scary at all. It is darker, I suppose, because of all the tall trees.”
“And colder,” Hattie pointed out. She pulled Sophie’s scarf tighter around her neck. “It is colder.”
Harry nodded. “Perhaps. But I think it’s the most beautiful place in the world.”
Harry made the tea. Then the three of them sat chatting and laughing. They imagined what the animals of Pine Needle Grove would say if they could see them at that very moment.
Outside Harry’s round window, Hattie noticed the shadows getting longer. “Sophie, I think we’d better start for home.”
“You’re right,” Sophie replied. Then she felt a pang of panic as something dawned on her.
She didn’t know the way home!
Oh, what do I say to Hattie? How can I tell her we’re lost—just like Harry?
As if reading her mind, Hattie looked right at Sophie and said, “Don’t worry. I know how to get home.”
Hattie’s Secret
Sophie couldn’t believe her ears. “What? You know the way home?”
Hattie nodded confidently.
“But . . . but how?” Sophie asked. Then something occurred to her. “Hattie, did you know that I didn’t know where we were?”
Hattie shrugged. “Not exactly,” she said. “But back at the waterfall, you didn’t seem so sure. So just in case, I thought I’d leave a trail.” Hattie pulled a handful of long reeds out of her pocket. They were just like the ones at the waterfall. “I tied reeds around some of the thinner tree trunks along the way.”
Sophie gasped. So
that’s what Hattie had been doing! She hadn’t been studying the trees, after all.
“Hattie, you’re a genius!” Sophie cried. “Now we just need to follow the trail back the way we came.”
Hattie nodded. Sophie threw her arms around her and hugged her tight. “Oh, Hattie!” she cried. “Thank you! Thank you for being so careful and practical!”
Hattie’s green face blushed pink. “You’re welcome,” she said with a laugh. Then she turned to Harry. “Mr. Higgins, would you like to come with us? We can take you back to Pine Needle Grove.”
Harry thought it over. Then he said, “No, thank you! I don’t have any family there. And really, Weedsnag Way is my new home. But you’re welcome to come visit me again any time.”
Sophie and Hattie smiled. “We will!”
“And when you do,” Harry added, “might you bring me something from that wonderful little bakery in town? Perhaps a marigold cupcake with blueberry icing?” Harry rubbed his tummy.
Sophie laughed. “We could do that!” she said. “In fact, I know the owner very well.”
The Whole Truth
Passing back through Weedsnag Way, Sophie gathered enough of the emerald berries to fill her pockets and Hattie’s. Then Harry led them back to the spot where they’d met. The girls said good-bye to their new friend and set off for home.
They had no trouble following Hattie’s trail back to the waterfall. From there, they then followed the river upstream. They crossed the fallen log to the other side. The map showed them the rest of the way home.
Sophie dropped Hattie off at her house. “Do you think anyone will believe what we found in Weedsnag Way?” Sophie asked.
Hattie smiled. “Either way, we know the truth.”
Sophie reached her house just before dark. Inside, she dropped her sack by the front door. Her dad was in the kitchen, cooking dinner—carrot stew by the smell of it. Her mother and brother were on the sofa playing cards. Sophie smiled. She was so happy to be home.
“Well, hello, stranger!” George Mouse called from the kitchen. “That must have been quite a hike. You’ve been gone all day!”
Sophie hesitated. She knew she had to tell her family about her adventure. Over dinner, she told them the whole story. Her mom and dad listened without saying a word. But Sophie could tell by their faces, they were not pleased.
“I know,” Sophie said. “I should have told you. The map was not right, and we could have gotten lost. I was lucky to have Hattie with me.”
Mr. and Mrs. Mouse looked at each other. Sophie got ready for a scolding.
“Please do not ever venture so far off again without telling us,” her mother said to her sternly.
“I won’t,” said Sophie. “I promise.”
Mr. Mouse cleared his throat. “And another thing!” he said.
Uh-oh, thought Sophie. Here it comes.
But her dad smiled and held out his hand. “Let’s have a look at these emerald berries!”
That evening, Sophie tried out her brand-new paint color, emerald berry. She painted a beautiful scene of Weedsnag Way, with a waterfall way off in the distance.
Rising up from the emerald berry bushes was a tree with a rope ladder hanging down the trunk.
And there, at the top of the long ladder, stood one happy squirrel.
The End
Here's a peek at the next Adventures of Sophie Mouse book!
Sophie Mouse skipped around the toadstool table. She added a carved-twig spoon to each of the four place settings.
“Napkin on the left, Winston,” she told her little brother as they set the table for dinner. “Spoon on the right.”
“Oh, right,” replied Winston. “Wait. Which side is left again?”
Sophie tried to be patient as she reminded him. She took a deep breath. Her nose twitched. Her whiskers quivered with glee. Delicious aromas filled the Mouse family’s house in the hollow of a big oak tree.
Sophie’s father, George Mouse, was at the stove. He was stirring a big pot of radish soup.
Sophie’s mother, Lily Mouse, peeked into the oven. She was trying out a new recipe—clover and juniper berry cake.
Poppy Green can talk to animals! Unfortunately, they never talk back to her. So she started writing in order to imagine what they might say and do when humans aren’t watching. Poppy lives on the edge of the woods in Connecticut, where her backyard is often a playground for all kinds of wildlife: birds, rabbits, squirrels, voles, skunks, deer, and the occasional wild turkey.
Jennifer A. Bell is an illustrator whose work can be found on greeting cards, magazines, and in more than a dozen children’s books. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, son, and cranky cat.
Little Simon
Simon & Schuster • New York
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE SIMON
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Little Simon paperback edition January 2015 • Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. • LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. • Designed by Laura Roode. • The text of this book was set in Usherwood. • Jacket design by Laura Roode • Jacket illustrations by Jennifer A. Bell • Jacket illustrations copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • Green, Poppy. • The emerald berries / by Poppy Green ; illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell. — First edition. pages cm. — (The adventures of Sophie Mouse ; #2) • Summary: Eight-year-old Sophie learns about some special emerald berries that will make the perfect color for a painting she wants to do, so she asks her friend Hattie to go with her to Weedsnag Way, a part of the forest that is far from home and very frightening. [1. Fear—Fiction. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 3. Mice—Fiction. 4. Frogs—Fiction. 5. Squirrels—Fiction. 6. Animals—Fiction.] I. Bell, Jennifer (Jennifer A.), 1977– illustrator. II. Title. PZ7.G82616Eme 2015
[Fic—dc23] 2014013607
ISBN 978-1-4814-2836-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-2835-4 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-2837-8 (eBook)
