Magpie had called a meeting in the little meadow next to Hare’s house. Everyone came, if only to see what sort of strange idea Magpie had this time. Magpie spent part of her day perched in the village near the woods, watching for shiny things to collect and listening to what the people were saying. She said that was where she got most of her best ideas. Otter, of course, said Magpie’s ideas were silly, and wondering where she got them was just as silly. Otter loved to say “silly,” and usually ended up making himself laugh so hard he got the hiccups. But he came to the meeting too.
When everyone was gathered in the meadow, Magpie perched on a small fir tree in the middle. Hare made sure there was always a fir tree in the middle of the meadow just for these meetings. He planted a new fir cone every second year, and when the tree got too tall he asked Beaver to cut it down. Beaver always said that Hare could do it himself, because his front teeth looked just about right, but Hare never seemed to quite get the knack of it no matter how many times Beaver tried to show him.
“Now that it’s spring,” announced Magpie, fluffing her feathers out importantly, “I think we should have some organized activities here in the forest.”
“That,” said Otter, “sounds silly.” He stifled a giggle behind his paw.
“Let’s hear what Magpie has to say,” whispered Hare. “Remember all the good ideas Magpie had.”
“I’m worried,” said Hedgehog.
“Hush,” said Hare. “You’re always worried, Hedgehog.”
“Ah,” signed Hedgehog, “I’m afraid that might be true, Hare.”
“I suggest we start with just two,” Magpie was saying, “and when those succeed, we can add some more.”
“Two what?” asked someone from the Mouse family.
“Two activities,” said Fox. She was sitting right next to the mice, who weren’t scared of her at all. Fox wasn’t interested in them either, since Magpie had introduced “sandwiches” to the forest. Now all Fox ate was sandwiches, and she had become very friendly with Ma and Pa Mouse.
“What’s an ‘activity’?” asked Mole. Mole often had to ask basic questions because his poor eyesight had made school very difficult for him. He’d gotten over being embarrassed about it, though, ever since Magpie had explained to everyone about Disabilities, and had given Skunk a hard peck right on the ear when he started to tease Mole.
“An ‘activity’,” said Beaver, “is something you do, Mole. “If I recall correctly, it’s mentioned in my copy of William Cole’s ‘The Contradiction’ from the late 1700s. The exact quote is something close to ’The comfortable activities of rural life.’” Beaver, who had the biggest house in the forest, also had the only library. He owed it all to Magpie’s introduction of plastic bags to the forest, which made it possible for Beaver to keep his books dry while going through his front hall, which was under the water.
“Thank you, Beaver,” said Mole. “The late 1700s, is that long ago?”
“Er…I’ve always thought so,” said Beaver. “Dog, do you know?”
Dog lived in a people-house just on the edge of the forest. She was such good friends with everyone, though, that she was considered part of the forest community and invited to everything. With her busy schedule she couldn’t always attend, but she often knew about the odd details that the humans (according to Magpie) were always interested in.
“I think so,” said Dog. “There are these things called ‘calendars’, and they’re all about numbers. I think every season has a number. Or every year. Or something like that. Anyway, they keep counting them, and they’re way past 1700, so it must have been long ago.”
“Ah,” said Beaver, “that quite agrees with my observations about this particular book. It seems to be older than many of my other volumes. Do you remember, Dog? It’s one that you brought me.”
“Hmm,” said Dog, “what does it smell like?”
Now, the forest folk have a perfectly good way to explain to each other what something smells like, and in what ways things smell alike or different. But their way of explaining smells isn’t something that fits into words very well — in fact, it doesn’t really fit into words at all. So all we can say about what happened next is that Beaver explained to Dog what the book smelled like, and Dog nodded and remembered the book. She had found it down near the floor when visiting a building in town that was even bigger than Beaver’s house, and crammed full of books. It had been the smell that made Dog think Beaver would like it. And because it was clear to Dog that humans considered everything near the floor as belonging to her, she had taken the book and brought it to Beaver as a gift. Dog herself wasn’t very interested in books, except that sometimes one of them did smell interesting.
“A very popular activity in the town,” continued Magpie, “is called a ‘class’. And so what we ought to do, I think, is organize two ‘classes’.”
“This,” giggled Otter, “is very silly.” Then he had to stick a paw in his mouth to stop himself from laughing too much.
“Magpie,” called Hare, “could you explain a bit more about classes, please?”
“Oh, of course,” said Magpie. “A class, you see, is where you say you’re going to have one, and you wait in a particular place at a particular time. Then everyone who wants to be in your class arrives, and you have it. It’s an activity.”
“There’s that word again,” said Mole doubtfully.
“I have an example!” said Raccoon. “I peeked in through a window one time, and I think I saw a class! Everyone was doing the same thing. They were chopping celery and onions and tomatoes and lettuce into small pieces and putting them in bowls. And later on they didn’t even eat them all, so they left some for me and they were delicious!”
“I think that’s called ‘throwing them out,’ not ‘giving them to Raccoon’,” muttered Hare.
“It amounts to the same thing,” said Otter, for once being serious.
“Yes, that’s right,” said Magpie, “in a class, everyone does the same thing at the same time. And I even have an idea about what our first two classes ought to be.”
“Ooh,” said Squirrel, “let’s hear it, Magpie!” Squirrel was always enthusiastic, and ever since Magpie had explained to him about ‘maps’ and how they could help him stop losing his stored acorns, he was always ready to try Magpie’s new ideas.
“The first class,” said Magpie, “should be an art class. And the second should be a yoga class.”
“I want to go to the yogurt class,” said Raccoon. “Can we have peach? That’s my very favorite.”
“YOGA,” said Magpie, “is not the same as ‘yogurt’, Raccoon. It’s not something you eat. It has to do with stretching yourself in different ways.”
“Like this?” asked Otter, practically tying himself into a knot, then untying.
“Er…well yes, that’s pretty much it,” said Magpie. “But not everyone can stretch themselves quite like you can, Otter.”
“I bet I can!” said Muskrat. “Come on, Otter, let’s have a contest!”
Muskrat and Otter ran to the edge of the meadow and started having a contest to see which one could stretch himself into the strangest shape.
Magpie sighed. “Well,”, she said, “perhaps we should have an advanced yoga class for Muskrat and Otter and a beginner one for everyone else. And as for the art class, that’s where you make pretty pictures. In ‘color,’ if you know what that is. If you don’t, you can still make pretty pictures anyway.”
Hare, who didn’t know what ‘color’ was because he couldn’t see it, raised a paw and asked about making pictures that sounded pretty. And Dog asked about making pictures that smelled interesting. Magpie said she hadn’t thought of those, but supposed they would be just as good.
Magpie said that was the end of her idea, and what did everyone think. As usual, nobody was quite sure what to think about one of Magpie’s ideas, at least at the beginning. But Magpie’s ideas worked out for the best at least half the time, and the other half was hardly ever terrible, so everyone said they would try “classes.” Magpie said they could choose to go to the art class, or the yoga class, but she wasn’t sure that everyone could go to both because the classes might be too big in that case.
Then Magpie said the meeting was over and she’d let everyone know when and where the classes would start, and in the meantime they should think about which class they’d like better.
Hare, who lived right beside the meadow and even thought of it as his meadow, invited Hedgehog and Squirrel to come in for an early snack in his kitchen to talk over what to do about the classes.
“I think,” said Hare, “that I’d like to go to the art class and make a picture that sounds nice. But on the other paw, I do feel a bit stiff some mornings, and some stretching might be very good.”
“How can you make a picture sound nice?” asked Hedgehog. “I’m worried that I might not be able to hear it properly; my ears aren’t quite the same as yours, Hare.”
“The yoga class, that’s for me,” said Squirrel. “I like stretching, and I’d like to show Otter and Muskrat a thing or two.”
“If they can be serious for two minutes, you probably could,” said Hedgehog. “But I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, Squirrel.”
“Which class would you like to go to, Hedgehog?” asked Hare.
“Oh, I was worried you were going to ask me that,” fretted Hedgehog. “The art class would be nice, because I know about colors — at least some of them. I’m worried that I might not know about all of them though. The yoga class would be good for me, I suppose. I can roll myself into a ball…” (he demonstrated, impressing both Hare and Squirrel) “…but I don’t know very many other stretches. But oh dear, do you think I might hurt myself trying to stretch in ways I’m not meant to?”
“Oh stop worrying,” said Hare, handing Hedgehog a small carrot. “If you start stretching and it feels like it’s going to hurt, stretch in a different direction.”
The three talked about the classes for a long time, munching on carrots the whole while. Before they were finished, one of the Wren family — Hare thought it was Christopher, but he was there and gone too quickly to be quite sure — dropped off a message from Magpie about the whens and the wheres of the classes.
“They start tomorrow,” said Hare, reading the message out loud.
“Oh boy!” said Squirrel.
“Oh dear,” said Hedgehog.
“Oh well,” said Hare. “I guess it’s time to go gather some more carrots. I still haven’t made up my mind completely about the classes.”
“Well I’m going to the yoga class,” said Squirrel.
“I guess I’ll try the art class,” said Hedgehog.
Both having other things to do, Squirrel and Hedgehog thanked Hare for the carrots, said goodbye, and headed home.
Instead of setting out after more carrots right away, Hare sat for a few more minutes trying to decide on a class. “Drat and bother,” he said to himself, “I still can’t decide. Well, maybe it will come to me eventually. Before tomorrow, I hope.” He went off to gather more carrots.
