Mary and Emily's Winter Picnic

Once upon a time there were two little girls and their names were Mary 
and Emily. They lived in a small friendly village. To the north of 
the village were the mountains, usually covered with snow. To the 
south was the forest, deep and dark and green. To the east was the 
city with tall buildings and many lights, and to the wast was the 
prairie, vast and golden in the sun.

One day when winter was still deep and dark, Mary and Emily got to 
thinking about spring time. They thought about all of the things they 
like to do in the spring: Build castles in the sandbox; ride bikes; 
run up the hills near the mountains and roll, roll, roll down; gather 
spring flowers; help Grandma plant her garden; and......GO ON 
PICNICS!!!!

They ran to Mommy and said, "Please, please, PLEASE may we go on a 
winter picnic!?" "Oh! My no!" said Mommy, "it is MUCH too cold today 
and the wind is FIERCE. But I heard on NPR that the sun is supposed to 
come out in 2 days and perhaps then, IF you wear your snow suits, we 
can think about a winter picnic."

TWO DAYS!!!!! What would they do for two days!?!


One of Mary and Emily's regular jobs in the winter was to go to 
Grandma's house and help carry in wood for the fire. They also feed 
the cats and bring in the mail. Today they were especially eager to go 
so they could tell Grandma that they had to wait TWO DAYS to go on 
their picnic. They walked down the street, past the school, past the 
church, past the grocery store which was called Mr. Grocer's and that 
really WAS his name, to the edge of the village. Then, through 
Grandma's garden gate, past the sleeping flower beds and the picnic 
table, still out in the snow, and into Grandma's back porch. Emily 
helped Mary pull off her boots, and Mary helped Emily with a knot in 
her hood. They hung their mittens on the radiator to dry, put their 
boots on the rug by the door, and dumped their coats on the floor. 
"Oh!" said Grandma, "I am SO GLAD you are here!" I was just needing 
two girls to measure." Grandma was sewing both girls flowered dresses 
for spring, ("because spring WILL come, she says,) "How tall are you 
today?" she asked. "But wait! you look like you could use some 
warming-up. Come on! I just got a big box of oranges in the mail. 
Let's make some hot chocolate and peel oranges by the fire. Mary, you 
heat up the milk. Emily, measure in the chocolate and get us each a 
few of those little marshmallows, you know, they're in the pantry. 
I'll go get the oranges, they're on the back porch." The girls got 
right to their tasks but soon heard a loud "AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH" from the 
back porch. They ran in to see what was the matter and found Grandma 
holding two drippy wet, cold coats from the floor. "HOW did you girls 
get so wet on the way over here?" Grandma asked. "We made snow angels 
on the church lawn," Mary said. "No one had walked there and the snow 
was PERFECT!" "And then we had a little snow ball fight with some kids 
in the playground," added Emily. "But it was just for fun, not really 
fighting." "Then we had to help Mr. Addison catch his dog. TWICE I 
almost got her, but both times Winnie jumped away just as I was 
reaching for her. She ran off down the street and I landed in the 
snow!" "It was pretty funny," Mary laughed.

We got her though," Mary said, "at the top of that hill just before 
the turn onto your road. We held her tight while Mr. Addison climbed 
up the hill. "Good grief!" said Grandma, "These coats will never 
dry piled here in a heap and you will be plenty cold if you have to go 
home in wet coats. Let's see....." She looked around, thinking what 
to do. "What we need is a clothes line." Grandma found a piece of 
rope, some nails, a hammer, and the ladder. She put the ladder in the 
far corner of the porch. "Emily, can you climb up and pound this nail 
right there in the corner?" "I'll try," said Emily. "I can do it!" 
said Mary. "Good," said Grandma, "because we need another one in that 
corner. Be careful not to pound your finger!" When both girls had 
successfully pounded nails into the corners, Grandma handed one end of 
the rope to Mary, still on the ladder. "Here. Can you loop this 
around the nail and tie it?" Then Grandma handed the other end of the 
rope to Emily, who was standing on the radiator with one foot, and on 
the windowsill with the other foot. "Here. Now pull it pretty tight 
and tie your end., Don't fall!" They hung the coats on the clothes 
line. There! They will dry quickly since it's right over the 
radiator." "But look, Grandma!" said Emily, "our coats are dripping 
right onto our mittens!" "oh, dear. Well, we can just move the 
mittens over." "Grandma," said Mary, "can we move the boot rug over 
there beside the heater? Then ALL of our clothes will be warm when we 
go home." "Great idea!" said Grandma. And they did.

Once they were all settled by the fire with their sweet, juicy oranges 
and hot, hot chocolate the girls said, "Grandma, we wanted to go on a 
winter picnic and Mama says that we have to wait TWO DAYS. NPR told 
her that maybe there will be sun shine and not so much wind by then. 
But Grandma! TWO DAYS!!!" "Well!" said Grandma "It seems to me that 
two days is just exactly enough time to get a winter picnic ready. But 
we had better get right to work!" "what do you mean?" asked Mary. 
"Finish up that chocolate and come with me,"said Grandma.

"OK," said Grandma, stacking cook books onto the kitchen table, "what 
were you thinking of packing?" "I don't know," said Emily, "we didn't 
really think about that." "Sandwiches," said Mary. "Peanut butter and 
jelly." "Good!" said Grandma, "Here." She handed them each a paper 
and pencil. "Make a list. You should take something to warm you, 
too." "SOUP!" the girls shouted at once, "And cookies!" "Cookies to 
warm you? laughed Grandma. "YES! " giggled the girls. "You can see 
we'd better get busy."

While Mary and Emily looked through the cook books to choose what sop 
to make and what kind of cookies, Grandma started the bread for 
sandwiches. "Do you have potatoes?" "I think so. Look in the 
pantry." "Milk?" "No." "Write down milk." said Mary to Emily. 
"Butter?" "Yes." "Parsley?" "There's parsley in the freezer that you 
girls picked for me last summer." "Great!" "Grandma?" "Yes?" "Can 
we make ginger cake instead of cookies?" "Sure." "Do you have ginger 
and flour and brown sugar and baking powder and," "SLOW DOWN!" laughed 
Grandma. "Ginger, yes. Flour, I think there's enough. Sugar, no. 
Write down sugar. Baking powder, yes. what else?" "cinnamon" "yes." 
"salt, water, molasses?" "yes, yes, no. Write down molasses." "oil, 
lemonade, LEMONADE???" "yes! That's the secret ingredient , but no, I 
don't have any. " "And can we make the hot lemon sauce? And can we 
keep it warm in a thermos? And then our cake really WILL help warm 
us!!" "Of course! " said Grandma and they laughed and laughed and 
laughed.

As grandma spread flour on the counter and put out two lumps of dough 
she said, "I got a new game the other day and have been wanting to play 
it. We can try it out while the bread rises. You guys come here and 
knead this dough and I'll got the game set up. Are your hands clean?" 
"Yes!" said Mary. "No!" said Emily. "How about if you both wash up 
first, just to be sure. Shall we play in here or by the fire?" And 
all at once, at the exact same time, all THREE shouted, "by the fire!" 
Mary and Emily, with spotlessly clean hands, kneaded and punched and 
mushed and smuched the dough and Grandma set up the game. It was 
called "How does your garden grow?" When all was ready Grandma said, 
"AGH! Winter is so much work ! Look !" She pointed to the wood box. 
"We're each going to have to go get a load of wood before we can start 
this game. Boots on, everyone! The woodshed is COLD."

In the warm kitchen the bread rose. In the warm living room, the three 
happily played. The game was about getting seeds planted and drawing 
enough sunshine cards and rain cards for the seeds to grow and trying 
not to draw too many weed cards or insect cards and then getting to the 
place where you could pick the vegetables before the cold came. And 
things like that. At the end of the game Emily said, "Grandma, winter 
is a lot of work. We have to dry our coats, and mittens and carry wood 
and all of that. Bur summer is a lot of work, too! " "You're right," 
said Grandma, "but isn't it all such FUN!!! Let's go check on the 
bread and how about a little lunch?" "But Grandma!! " Mary and 
Emily cried, "Did you forget?!? You are having lunch at our house! 
REMEMBER??? THE COUSINS????" "Oh! I DID forget! We were so busy I 
completely forgot! How could I? We'd better get going! I want to 
be there when they arrive!"

And off they went, into the snowy day. And that was day one.

Day Two was gray, and a little rainy. The first thing that Emily and 
Mary did, that is AFTER eating several of Daddy's great pancakes, was 
plan the day. "We have to make the soup and the cake." "We can make 
the sandwiches, too, and put them in the fridge." "No, let's make them 
tomorrow so they are really fresh. We have to heat up the soup anyhow 
and we can make the sandwiches while it gets hot." "Yeah. We have to 
go to the store. Grandma doesn't have everything." "Do you have the 
list?" "No. Do you?" "NO!" Just then they heard feet stamping on 
the front porch and they ran to see who was there. "Hi, Grandma!" 
"Hi, Sweeties, I found your grocery list and thought you might need it. 
I am out of dog food so I'm driving to the pet store. Want me to drop 
you at Mr. Grocer's and pick you up on my way home? Then we can start 
the soup. There will be lots of potatoes to peel!. And we should do 
the cake today." "YES! YES !! YES!"

It rained and blew coldness all day long. Mary sat sadly by the window 
and said, "it sure doesn't look like a picnic out there." "Sure 
doesn't," said Emily. "Oh, you just never know," said Grandma. "When 
I was in getting dog food I had an idea." "What?" asked Mary and 
Emily. Grandma went on, "Betsey Bear has been in hibernation all 
winter long now, since when was it? When was the last time we saw her? 
Was it just after Thanksgiving?"

(Now you may not know about Betsey Bear. She is from 
a different story of Mary and Emily. She is a bear that lives in the 
mountains, just north of town. She was rooting around in Grandma's 
garden one summer day and, after finishing off all of Grandma's 
tomatoes, actually walked into the house to see what Grandma, Emily and 
Mary were eating! They have been good friends, and have had a few 
adventures together since then.)

Back to the story. "Yes! It was 4 days after, remember!? She 
followed us to school and all of the kids were so scared!" "Yeah !" 
"Yes, you are right. Well, anyhow, it's been a long time. And it's 
not spring, not yet, and she has to sleep a bit more. But I FEEL 
spring in the air, just around the corner, and she is going to be ONE 
HUNGRY BEAR when she wakes up. Why don't you have your winter picnic 
somewhere near her cave and you can take her some kind of snack. You'd 
have to leave it just outside of the cave. You can't wake her up ! 
It's important that she sleep all the way till spring, but then, when 
she DOES wake up Voila ! Snack! Think how happy she would be!" "What 
should we take?" "Oh, I don't know. What's her favorite thing, 
BESIDES my tomatoes!" "BERRIES!" "I have some blueberries in the 
freezer, and some of that strawberry jam that we made last summer." 
"Can we make her a strawberry jam-blueberry sandwich!?!" "Sure!" And 
so, they did.

Mary and Emily had a hard time falling asleep that night. They kept 
hearing the rain falling, falling. Mary said, "I bet there a million 
rain drops." "Let's see if we can count them," said Emily. "One, two, 
three, four......" So, of course, they were soon asleep, and that was 
Day Two.

The first thing that Mary and Emily heard when when they woke up was NO 
RAIN! Emily leaped out of bed and ran to the window. The rain had 
nmelted the snow away and all of the world, well, as much of it as 
Emily could see, looked brand new clean. "MARY!" she shouted, "LOOK! 
It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL day !!!" Mary ran to the window to see 
for herself and sure enough, a big bright sun was just peeking it's way 
over the church steeple. Of course, it was still very cold, still 
winter, but! The SUN!!! Mary and Emily pulled on thights and 
t-shirts, the first layer. Then they added sweat pants, sweat shirts, 
and socks. They gobbled down a quick breakfast. Mary had 2 bowls of 
cheerios with banana, and Emily had corn flakes, no banana. They were 
ready to go! "Wait!" called Mama. "Don;t forget your picnic basket 
and I have a blanket ready. The ground will be wet. You can sit on 
this." "I think we'd better take the wagon," said Mary. We have so 
much to carry: blanket, basket Betsey's surprise. I want to take my 
drawing table and colored pencils. Are you going to take that knitting 
you started at Grandma's?" "No, I want to take my book. I'm at such 
an exciting place! I will sit in the winter sun and read and you can 
draw me!" "LET'S DO IT!!" And off they went.

Mary and Emily walked north, toward the mountains because that is where 
Betsey, and all of the mountain bears, would be hibernations. They 
followed their favorite trail, the one that leads to the meadow of 
flowers, that is in the spring, when there ARE flowers. The meadow, 
even without flowers was BEAUTIFUL on this rain-washed winter day. 
When they got there Mary and Emily decided that it was indeed time to 
eat. They would deliver Betsey her surprise snack after lunch. Betsey 
was asleep anyhow. Mary and Emily spread out their blanket by a wall 
of large rocks. On one side was a stream, now frozen solid. On the 
other side were green pine trees, and the white-barked aspen. With 
their backs against the sun-warmed rock, the girls looked out over the 
whole valley. They could see the church steeple, and the sign for Mr. 
Grocer's, and they could ALMOST see over to Grandma's house. "I bet if 
I climb up on the rock I can see it," said Emily. "I don't know about 
that, " said Mary. She was already deeply busy drawing. There are a 
lot of colors in the meadow ! Even without flowers. Enily scampered 
up t he rock to take a look and she DUD see Grandma's house! "I see it 
! I see it !" she said jumping up and down. "I see it!" and "OH!" 
Swish ! Thump ! Scrape ! CRASH! Emily landed SPLAT! Right onto 
Mary's lap! Emily had forgotten that the rock was wet from the rain. 
She had forgotten that it was slippery. "EMILY!" Mary said angrily. 
"You landed on my picture! You broke the lead of my GREEN!!!" Then 
she saw blood dripping down Emily's cheek, and she heard Emily cry. 
"Oh! What's wrong? Where do you hurt? Why are you crying? Oh ! 
HELP!!" Mary gently lay Emily down on the blanket and bunched up one 
corner to make a pillow. She took a napkin out of the picnic basket 
and carefully wiped the tears and blood off of Emily's face. It was 
scraped. "I slipped and fell off of the rock." "I KNOW you slid off 
the rock! You slid right into ME! Are you ok?" Emily laughed a 
little remembering how surprised mary was when she landed on her. "I 
think I'm ok. I was really scared, and my face stings." "I will check 
you, " Mary said. Mary gently moved one of Emily's arms, then the 
other. "Arms ok." she said. Then she moved Emily's legs. "Legs ok." 
Mary poked around on Emily's stomach like she had seen Dr. Small do 
when they went for check ups. "STOP!" laughed Emily. "THat tickles!" 
Mary took the napkin to the stream and found a little edge where the 
ice had melted. She dipped the napkin in and brought it back to Emily, 
cold and wet. "This will help your face stop stinging," she said. 
Emily lay back on her bunched up blanket-pillow with the cold napkin on 
her face and smiled. "I DID see Grandma's house," she said, and 
settled down to read the last few chapters of her book. Mary had to 
start her picture all over again, but, it turned out that the second 
was even better than the first.

By the time Emily had finished her book (the ending was wonderful) and 
Mary was happy with her drawing, the sun had crept across the afternoon 
sky toward the prairie, and evening. "We've got to get going," said 
Emily "We still have to find Betsey's cave and leave her snack," Mary 
added. They packed up all of their stuff and set off, up the trail to 
the caves. "Which one do you think it is?" "I don't know." "Think 
it's that one ? Over there? By the big tree?" "Or maybe that little 
one, near the stream?" "What should we do?" Emily asked. "I'll go 
look," said Mary, and off she ran to the entrance of the nearest cave. 
"NO!" shouted Emily. "There are a lot more bars in these mountains 
than just Betsey! The other bears don't know us. If they wake up they 
might be really grumpy and REALLY hungry! Don't go in there!" Too 
late. Mary had walked into the cave. Emily ran to the door of the 
cave and listened. "Mary?" Emily whispered. "Are you there?" "Yes," 
mary whispered back. "Do you hear that?" "What?" "Listen. I hear 
something funny." Emily listened and listened but she couldn't hear 
anything. She squeezed her eyes closed and listened with all of her 
might. She was listening so hard, and her eyes were squeezed so tight 
that she didn't notice that Mary had come out of the cave and was 
standing right beside her. When Mary said, "did you hear it?" Emily 
was so sruprised and scared that shescreaded and jumped and grabbed 
hold of Mary. And THAT so surprised and scared Mary that SHE screamed 
and jumped ahd grabbed hold of Emily! Then they were both so scared 
that their screamingmight wake up a scarry bear that they screamed some 
more and ran all the way down to the trail where their wagon was 
waiting. They laughed and laughed and cried and laughed and told each 
other over and over what had just happened. "What WAS the sound that 
you heard?" Emily asked. "Was it like.......snoring?" "no, not 
really." "was it like.......bear breathing?" "I don't think so." 
"Well WHAT?" "I know that yoou are going to think this is really 
weird," Mary said, "but it sounded to me like......like.....Emily do 
you remember when we were little and I had a baby doll that squeeked 
when you squeezed her in the stomach? Remember?" SUre," said Emily. 
"THAT'S what it sounded like." "You think your BABY DOLL is in the 
CAVE??" "No!" Mary laughed. "That;s just what it SOUNDED like. I 
think we'd better go back and look. It was a sad sound. Something in 
there is sad. Come on!" "Let's take Betsey's snack just in case there 
in a grumpy bear in there. we can throw it to him and run." "Ok." 
Quietly, slowly, quietly, slowly Emily and Mary climbed back up the 
till towards the cave. The cave looked very, very dark. "I sure wish 
we had a flashlight," Emily said. "I have a candle in my pocket! " 
said Mary, "and some matches, too! They're left over from when we went 
Christmas caroling, remember?" "But Mom would NEVER let us light a 
candle by ourselves, Mary." II have an idea! said Emily, and she was 
gone. Emily came back with the tin foil that Mom had used to cover the 
ginger cake. " Foil doesn't burn, right? That's why we use it to wrap 
up our stew when we cook on the camp fire. And here's the lid of the 
thermos. I also brought the cake knife. We can dig a little hole in 
the earth, here, just inside the cave. Now, put the lid in and cover 
it with foil. Now we can stand the candle in it, and smush the foil 
all around so the candle stands up. That will light the cave a little 
bit and we won't have to carry the candle. Look !" "WOW!!! What a 
great idea!" "Now, we have to light the candle." "You strike the 
match, it was your idea." "No, Mom doesn't allow me to." Well, she 
doesn't allow ME to, either.....but......this IS an emergency. OK, 
said Mary, "I;ll do it. Stand back." The plan worked perfectly. By 
the light of the candle, and holding tightly to each other, Mary and 
Emily tip toed into the cave. They took 5 slow steps, and stopped to 
listen. Nothing. Then 5 more steps, listen. There it was. It DID 
sound like that old baby doll! It Was something sad! But what could 
it be? 5 more steps and it was getting darker. "LOOK!!!!!" There, 
stumbling and falling and crawling and crying were 4 tiny baby kittens. 
Oh my oh my oh my. How did they get into the cave? Where was their 
mother?

I think the kittens could smell Mary and Emily. Or, maybe they heard 
their soft whispers. Maybe they felt the warmth of Mary and Emil, 
standing there, for stumbling, falling, crawling, and crying they made 
their way right to Mary and Emily's feet. "Oh just LOOK!" Mary was on 
the cave floor scooping up a kitten. "It;s so SOFT!" she said. "And 
so cold," added Emily, picking up the gray one. "I'll bet they're 
hungry! Shall we see if they like blueberries and strawberry jam?" 
"No.......kittens just need warm milk." "But we haven't any!' "Let's 
take them home." "How!? We can't take them out of the cave! It's 
MUCH too cold out there and the sun's going down fast - it will be even 
COLDER." "But, said Mary, "they will die if we leave them here." Mary 
unzipped her snowsuit and put the orange and white stripe kitten down 
her sweatshirt. "He;s tickling me!" she laughed. Emily put the gray 
kitten in the pocket on her sweat pants, and the black one in a mitten, 
and then zipped it into her snowsuit pocket. Mary picked up the 
littlest, a calico and stuffer her into her sweatshirt with the orange 
stripe. "Hey! No fighting in there," she told them.

Mary and Emily, and all four kittens found a large, flat smooth rock 
that was pretty much close to the doors of all of the caves. That is 
where they left Betsey Bear;s Spring Snack, blueberry and strawberry 
jam sandwich, and, a piece of ginger cake. THey were sure that 
wherever Betsey was sleeping she would walk up and find her surprise. 
"WE found a surprise, too" laughed the girls as they carefully found 
their way back to the trail, and home.

And that is the story of Mary and Emily's winter picnic.