“You want to do what, exactly?” asked Hare.
“I want to leave this on the ground — well, on the snow — in a place in the forest where Magpie will probably find it, but nobody else probably will,” said Dog.
“Why don’t you just give it to Magpie yourself?” asked Hare.
“Because it’s a secret,” said Dog.
“If it’s a secret, then why do you want her to find it?” asked Hare. This whole plan was not adding up, in Hare’s mind.
“It’s not a secret gift, it’s a secret Santa,” said Dog. “I got the idea from something my family did a couple of days ago; they all got gifts but they didn’t know who they were from, and it seemed like everybody had a good time.”
“Well,” said Hare dubiously, “I guess we can think about it, but are you going to be looking for places in the forest where everybody else will probably find something but nobody else probably will? That would be pretty hard to do.”
“No,” said Dog, “maybe we can get there sometime, but for now I only have this one gift, and Magpie would like it best. You have to start somewhere, right?”
“I guess so,” sighed Hare. “But I thought of another problem. Magpie can fly, and has really good eyesight. So if I take it to a place in the forest, she’ll see my tracks in the snow and know it’s me. If you do it, she’ll see your tracks. It won’t be a secret for long.”
“Not a problem,” wagged Dog. “My family has a television, and I saw the weather forecast — tonight there’s going to be more snow, so it will cover any tracks!”
“Wait a minute,” said Hare, “won’t it also cover this thing you want to give Magpie?”
“Nope,” said Dog, “I figured that out too. See the little hook at the top of this thing? We just hang it from the lowest branch of a tree. It will stay out of the snow!”
“Hmmm,” said Hare. “I guess it might work, even though I still don’t quite get it. Magpie flies over the little clearing just past Beaver’s house, and nobody else goes there because Beaver’s pond is in the way. So she’ll probably find it there, if she’s going to find it at all.”
“Oh, she’ll find it,” said Dog happily. “Notice how shiny the thing is? Magpie loves shiny things.”
“Well that’s true,” said Hare. “But I still don’t see why you don’t just hand it…er, paw it to her.”
“Because that’s not the way it works!” said Dog.
Hare gave up. Dog got some strange ideas sometimes, probably from spending so much time with people. Hare couldn’t see any harm in this one; the worst that could happen would be that Magpie would never notice the shiny thing Dog had brought. But Dog was right; Magpie really did love shiny things. But the secret part…Hare shook his head.
“Okay,” he said, “do you want me to take this thing to the little clearing by myself, or are you coming?”
“I’d like to come too,” said Dog, “but it’s getting late and I should be getting home. Thank you, Hare, it’s really nice of you to help me out.”
“You’re welcome,” said Hare. “Just tell me how it turns out.”
“I will,” said Dog over her shoulder. She was already trotting home.
Hare put on his scarf and headed to the little clearing with the shiny thing Dog had brought. It was a nice round, red thing, but Hare couldn’t figure out what it could be. He’d thought maybe it was to put things in, but it didn’t have any openings. Maybe Dog knew, but it was another secret.
Hare didn’t meet anybody on his way to the clearing, and although he kept checking the sky, nobody was flying past either. It was starting to get dark, and sure enough, by the time he got to the little clearing it had started to snow. He hung the thing at the very end of the lowest branch of a pine tree, right where he thought Magpie might see it.
After he hung it up, just to be doubly safe he made an enormous hop away from the tree so even if the snow didn’t cover his tracks, maybe Magpie wouldn’t notice them. He tried to remember what Dog had said about his family doing something when they hoped something would come true…something about crossing something or other? Hare crossed his ears, just in case.
The next morning, Hare found he hadn’t needed to be careful at all; there was a lot of new snow on the ground, and there weren’t any tracks to be seen. He made breakfast and was just sipping his second cup of tea when there was a loud rapping at his door. When he opened it, it was Magpie.
Magpie was holding the shiny red thing from Dog and looking very happy indeed. “Hare, look what I found!” she said. “Isn’t it the most beautiful thing you ever saw? And I just managed to get it, too; a couple of my cousins are visiting and we were flying over that little clearing near Beaver’s house when I saw it. I saw it first, and got to it while they were still circling around, isn’t that lucky?”
“Oh yes,” said Hare. “Magpie, what do you think that thing is, anyway?”
“I’ll tell you,” said Magpie, “I’ve been overhearing the people in town talking about something they call ‘Christmas,’ that has something to do with gifts. They give each other gifts, I’m pretty sure. I think that’s what this is: a gift! For me! I don’t know who it’s from, but maybe you just don’t know with gifts. But isn’t it the most beautiful thing you ever saw?”
“It is very nice,” said Hare, who didn’t care about shiny things nearly as much as Magpie did. “I’m glad you like it, Magpie. Would you like a teacake? I just baked some for breakfast.”
“Thanks anyway,” said Magpie, “but I’m too excited to eat. I’m taking this to show Dog; she knows all about what people do and I’ll ask her about gifts and Christmas. This is so exciting! Bye, Hare!”
“Goodb…” Hare started to say, but Magpie was already gone. “Well,” said Hare, “that worked pretty well. Dog is going to be as happy as Magpie.”
Hare poured a bit more tea, just to warm his up. Seeing all the new snow out his window made it especially nice to sit inside with tea and cakes.
Raven’s Bauble © Rick Allen of the Kenspeckle Press. You can buy these holiday cards from Artists to Watch, or direct from Kenspeckle Letterpress.
