On this bright fall day, everyone was working.

Mama Chipmunk’s grandchildren gathered basketsful of dry leaves for their grandmother to use as quilt stuffing.

Squirrel scampered here and there, tallying all the nuts he’d buried.

Old Possum, with help from the mice, stacked firewood.

Rabbit’s tea shop was full of customers, and she was kept busy steeping cup after cup of hot tea.

And Raccoon stood in her kitchen, her recipe notebook on the counter, and gnawed on the end of a pencil. She was making lists, and a schedule, for all the cooking and baking that would be necessary for the upcoming feast.

When she’d finished her list, Raccoon glanced out the window at the birch grove, where the remaining leaves glittered golden in the sunshine and danced in the breeze. Knowing what needed to be done, she brewed a thermos of coffee and took it and a few mugs outside, where she called to everyone to Come quick! so they could savor a sip of coffee and admire the impossibly blue autumn sky​.

(Late November 2024)

Story © Jennifer McClain Singleton / Read+Purr

This is another vignette in my ongoing series of Tiny Garden Stories: peaceful 1-minute tales that let you read like a kid again. Click one of the first two buttons below to go to (or back to, if that’s where you fell down the rabbit hole) either the “Public Garden” archive page or (if you’re a Story Club member) to the members-only “Private Garden” page. Or click the third button to learn more about my Tiny Garden Stories.

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