Before the Barn Party
“It’s going to be a big party,” Barney the Owl assured Hare. “You should all come.”
“It’s on Saturday?” asked Hare.
“That’s right, it’ll last all day,” said Barney. “Hope everyone from the forest can come, Hare.”
With that, Barney flew away. Hare hopped out to let everyone in the forest know about the party.
“This is at the farm?” asked Hedgehog. “Are you sure, Hare? I’m worried about showing up in the wrong place, or at the wrong time.”
“Barney lives in the barn on the farm”, said Hare, “he wouldn’t fly over to tell us about a party somewhere else. And he said it was all day long on Saturday, so any time will be okay.”
“I do like parties,” said Hedgehog. “All right, I’ll go, Hare. But I’m worried about it.”
“Hedgehog,” said Hare, “is there anything you don’t worry about?”
“There are probably things I haven’t heard about yet,” said Hedgehog. “So I can’t worry about them.”
“Well that’s something, at least,” said Hare.
“Except…” said Hedgehog, “it worries me that I might not have heard about those things, so in a way I’m worrying about them already.”
“I have to hop along and let the others know about the party,” said Hare. “Try not to make yourself sick, Hedgehog.”
“Sick?” said Hedgehog. “I could get sick? That sounds bad. Hare, that really worries me. What if…”
“Bye,” said Hare, hopping away quickly. By the end of the day he’d told everyone in the forest about the party in the barn, and gotten Magpie to agree to fly over to the college to let Ma and Pa Mouse and Betty and Ralph Rat know about it too. “I’m not sure they’ll come,” Magpie had said, “lots of things are going on at the college on Saturdays, so they might be busy. But I’ll tell them.”
On Saturday morning, Hare got up early. Everyone was going to gather in the meadow beside his tree for the trip to the farm. Dog was going to join them on the way; the way to the farm passed by her house. They’d have to meet the Mouses and the Rats at the party — if they were going.
Hedgehog, who was too small to walk the whole way himself, rode on Fox’s back, along with Mole. Magpie few from one perch to another, staying just ahead.
“You can just fly on ahead if you want to, Magpie,” said Hare. “We’ll meet you when we get there.”
“Naw,” said Magpie, “I’d rather stay with all of you. Then I have somebody to talk to along the way.”
“But you haven’t been saying anything,” said Hare.
“No, but I could if I wanted to,” said Magpie. “If I wanted to say ‘Hare, why are you going all the way to the farm when you could just stay in the forest and have your own party,’ I could.”
“ARE you saying that?”
“No,” said Magpie, “I didn’t say that. I just said IF.”
“I think that’s just a sneaky way to say things you don’t want to really say.” said Hare.
“Nonsense,” said Magpie, “we’re pretty open with each other in the forest. If I wanted to say ‘I think this is just another silly excuse,’ I could say it.”
“There you go again,” said Hare. “Silly excuse for what?”
“What?” said Magpie.
“What is going to the party a silly excuse for?” asked Hare.
“How can going to a party be an excuse for something?” asked Magpie innocently.
“Magpie,” said Hare, “you know you’re being really annoying, right?”
“If I wanted to be annoying…” said Magpie.
“You’d do exactly what you’re doing,” said Hare. “You’re doing all this fluttering over our heads, and you’re saying things without saying them. If you don’t want to go to the party, then just don’t go.”
“If I didn’t want to go the party,” said Magpie, “I would just fly over to the farm and tell any mean horses I found there that I wasn’t going to go to any party in their barn.”
“Oliver and Jake?” said Hare. “Why are you calling them mean?”
“I didn’t call anybody mean,” said Magpie.
Hare sighed. “Magpie, did Jake and Oliver do something you didn’t like?” he asked.
“If I were to tell you that there was a barn somewhere, and there was a bird feeder hung above the door on this barn — if there is a barn — and that two immature horses were having a kicking contest (I’m not saying there’s a barn, or that there are any horses), and knocked the bird feeder down so it broke,” said Magpie, “then…”
“If you were to tell me that,” said Hare, “I would say it was an accident and the horses are probably sorry, and the bird feeder is probably fixed and hung back over the door. Farms have people living on them too, in order to get things like that fixed.”
“But I know,” said Hare, holding up a paw, “you didn’t really tell me anything like that, Magpie. You were just asking a question. There really isn’t a barn, or horses, or a bird feeder. Right?”
“Of course there isn’t,” said Magpie. “I was just asking about something that I could say, and what you might think about it if I did say it. Which I didn’t,” she added.
“Oh look,” said Hare. “There’s the barn, and Jake and Oliver are just trotting out the door. And look, there’s a bird feeder just above the door. It looks new, doesn’t it, Magpie?”
But Magpie had already flown over to the barn and perched on the bird feeder. Everyone — all the birds, any way — knew this feeder had the best seeds around. “Hello, Jake! Hello, Oliver!” called Hare. “”We’ve come to the party!” Magpie said nothing; her mouth was full.
