Lexi's Tale (8 page)

“Don't worry,” PeeWee told her. “This is Central Park. It's bigger and better than a hundred cages, and I'll take care of you.” As if to prove his point, he began to groom his new friend. “Look,” he told her, pointing to his hole. “This is where you'll live now.”

I looked into his dark, damp hole and
thought of something. “I'll be right back,” I shouted as I raced up my tree. From my nest hole I pulled out the woolen muffler that I'd been saving for myself. My hole looked pretty empty without the muffler or the mitten or the wallet, but I knew it wouldn't take long for me to find new treasures to stuff inside in their place.

I ran down the tree with the muffler in my mouth. “Here,” I called to the two guinea pigs. “Put this in your hole. It will keep it warmer and drier.”

PeeWee took the muffler from me and began to push it into his hole.

“Thank you,” said Plush softly. “I can see you are going to be a good friend to us.”

“Plush,” PeeWee said, “Lexi is the best squirrel in the park. In fact I'm certain that he's the best in the world. We're lucky to know him.”

I looked at the two guinea pigs in front of me. PeeWee's praise made me feel better than all the applause of my fellow squirrels that I'd received after my balancing act. And, I thought, what is a somersault or even a triple somersault compared with a good friend?

My mother and Uncle Ninety-nine might insist,
Stick out your tail and you're bound to fail
, but I think they're wrong about this. I've decided that life is much more than leaping and eating and waving a tail. PeeWee doesn't even have a tail worth speaking about, and yet he's taught me to stick mine out. It's been a good lesson.

“Plush,” I said to the new guinea pig, “it's late now, and dark. Time for all of us to get a good night's rest. But tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come, we'll go hunting for delicious things to eat and beautiful flowers to sniff and admire. You're going to be very happy in this park. I promise you that.”

“He's right,” PeeWee told Plush. “We will be very happy here together.”

I'd have my work cut out for me: looking
after
two
guinea pigs. But I knew we'd have fun together too.

“Good night,” I called to them both as they crawled into PeeWee's home. Then I ran up my tree to my hole. It was time for me to go to sleep as well. Tomorrow would bring us all new adventures.

Johanna Hurwitz
is the award-winning author of many popular books for young readers, including
PeeWee's Tale, Class Clown
, and
Rip-Roaring Russell
. Ms. Hurwitz lives in Great Neck, New York, and Wilmington, Vermont.

Patience Brewster
has illustrated more than thirty books for children, including
PeeWee's Tale
. She lives in Skaneateles, New York.