Green Fever (9 page)

Mark went back to watching the cats eat their breakfast. He knew how bad his sister must feel, but it wasn’t his fault he’d seen the bike first and had come up with the idea of fixing it.

“This is gonna be so much fun,” Mark commented as their family climbed aboard the large wagon that would take them on the trails to see all the animals at The Farm at Walnut Creek.

“I hope the two horses hitched to this wagon are strong enough to pull all of us,” Mattie said, seating herself on the wooden bench on the right side of the wagon.

“Don’t worry about that,” Dad said, taking a seat on the left side of the wagon beside Mom, Calvin, Ada, and Perry. “The horses are big and strong, just like the ones I use to plow our fields.”

“That’s right,” Ike agreed. “These big draft horses will have no trouble at all.” He took a seat near Mark, Mattie, and Russell.

“Oh, look,” Mark said, pointing at the horses, “they’re wearin’ bells on their harnesses like they did the last time I was here.”

Their guide, who was Amish and said his name was Aaron, explained that he would be driving the wagon. “There are a few rules everyone needs to know before we start our adventure,” he said.

Mattie figured there would be some rules because Mark had told her ahead of time what to expect.

“You must stay in the wagon at all times and remain seated whenever the wagon is moving,” Aaron said. “You can feed some of the four-legged animals by holding the buckets of food I gave you, but some of them will need to be fed by pouring feed out of the buckets and onto the floor of the wagon where they can reach it.” He gestured to the buckets sitting in the middle of the wagon. “Be sure to feed the two-legged feathered animals with beaks out of the bucket. If you don’t, their sharp beaks might hurt your hands.”

Mattie didn’t like the sound of that. She would make sure not to feed any of the animals with her bare hands.

“There are some areas I’ll be taking us through where the animals will walk right up to the wagon, so hang on to your bucket because if you drop it out of the wagon we won’t be able to stop and pick it up.” Aaron looked at Mattie and said, “You look eager to know more, so feel free to ask questions about any of the animals we see along the way.”

She smiled. “Danki, I will.”

As they rode along, Aaron pointed out some goats and several sheep with long, curved horns that were called Aoudad.

“These unusual sheep come from northern Algeria,” Aaron explained. “They’re able to run quickly up steep hills, and they can go as long as five days without drinking fresh water.”

“Wow!” Calvin exclaimed. “Don’t think any of us could go that long without water.”

“You’re right about that,” Dad agreed. “We would quickly become dehydrated.”

“Those sheep can weigh anywhere from 90 to 130 pounds,” Mark interjected.

“That’s right.” Aaron smiled at Mark. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

“Jah, I was here last year with my friend John and his family. After I got home, I did a little reading about the animals we’d seen.”

“I thought you looked familiar, but then I never know for sure because we get a lot of visitors here every year,” Aaron said. “I’m glad to hear you took so much interest in our animals. You’ll never get too old to learn new things. I once read that, ‘Knowledge has a beginning but no end.’ ”

Mark gave a nod.

They rode a little farther until they came upon several elk and deer. Mattie thought it was fun to hold the bucket of feed out or put food on the wagon floor so the animals could eat whenever the wagon stopped.

Ada and Perry were too little to hold the buckets by themselves, so Mom helped Ada, and Dad helped Perry. Ada squealed and clapped her hands every time one of the animals stuck its head into the wagon. Perry laughed and held on tightly to his side of the bucket while Dad held the other.

“Oh, look, there’s a zebra!” Mattie shouted. When the animal came up to the wagon to be fed, she reached out and stroked its ear. Its fur felt soft and silky, just like Twinkles.

“This critter is called the Grevy Zebra, and it’s the largest species of zebra,” Aaron said. “It’s able to run as fast as forty miles per hour.”

Russell whistled. “There’s no way I could ever run that fast.”

Next, they saw an ostrich with a long neck and pointed beak. Mark held his bucket tightly as the ostrich eagerly stuck its beak into the bucket to get some food. In and out! In and out! The big bird’s head bobbed back and forth. “I think this ginormous bird is tryin’ to eat all my food,” he said, laughing.

Mattie rolled her eyes. She didn’t see why Mark had to use such a big word. It seemed like he was showing off. Maybe he was trying to impress their driver and make him think he was really smart for a boy who was only nine and a half.

“An ostrich egg is quite large,” their driver went on to say. “It can be as much as six inches long and weigh up to three and a half pounds.”

Mom chuckled. “Now that is a very big
oi!
Can you just imagine what a large omelet that egg would make? Why, I’ll bet it would fill up an entire plate.”

Dad laughed, too. “We could probably divide it among ourselves.”

“Now in this next area we’re coming to, there will be more animals roaming around,” Aaron told them. “You’ll have to be careful because some of them might get pretty excited when they come up to the wagon looking for something to eat.”

Mattie hardly knew which way to look. There seemed to be animals everywhere. The little fallow deer had spots and looked like the baby white-tailed fawns they sometimes saw in the fields near their home in the spring.

“Oh, oh. Here come the llamas. Be careful now,” Mark warned. “When I came here with John and his family, one of the llamas spit on me.”

When the llamas approached, Mark and his brothers held out their buckets. Mattie, feeling a little nervous, put some of her food on the floor near the edge of the wagon. She didn’t want to get spit on, so she wasn’t taking any chances.

Ada giggled when one of the smaller llamas tried to stick its head into the bucket Mom held.

Fortunately, no one got spit on this time. Mattie was relieved.

“Now we’re coming to the place where the giraffes are kept,” their guide announced. “They’re in a fenced-in area, and when we stop, they’ll stick their long necks over the fence so we can feed them.”

“Just look at how big they are!” Mattie exclaimed. She’d never been this close to such a large animal before.

Ike snickered when one of the larger giraffes gobbled up all the food in his bucket. “He sure is a hungry fellow.”

When the tour ended and they all climbed down from the wagon, Mom said it was time to eat lunch.

“Over there’s the picnic area.” Mark pointed in that direction. “That’s where we ate when I came here with John and his family.”

They headed for the picnic tables, and then Mom opened the picnic basket, which she’d packed with ham and cheese sandwiches, a large bag of chips, and some cut-up veggies to munch on. She’d also brought several cans of soda pop, and for dessert there were brownies as well as some peanut-butter cookies. Everyone bowed their heads for silent prayer; then they dug into the food.

“Yum! These sandwiches are sure good, Mom,” Mattie said, smacking her lips.

Mom smiled and wiped a blob of mustard off the end of Perry’s nose. “I think food always tastes better when it’s eaten outside, and it’s nice that the weather is warm enough today so we can sit out here and enjoy our meal.”

Ada giggled and clapped her hands when a sparrow hopped over and ate some of her bread crumbs.

“There’s a farmhouse over there where people can visit to see what a real Amish home looks like,” Mark said, motioning across the way.

Dad chuckled. “I don’t think we need to go inside since we already know what an Amish home looks like.”

“That’s true,” Mom said with a nod, “but it might be kind of fun to see how it’s set up.”

“Let’s go over there instead,” Dad suggested, pointing in the opposite direction. “Looks like there is a rock garden with a waterfall and small pond.”

“Jah, that’s right,” Mark said, bobbing his head. “There are all kinds of ducks swimmin’ in there, and lots of fish, too.”

After the family finished eating lunch, they gathered things up and took a walk through the covered bridge that led to the pond.

“Hasn’t this been a fun day?” Mark asked, grinning as he looked over at Mattie.

She nodded. “It’s been the best day I’ve had in a long time.” She wished they could do fun things like this every day, but then if they did, it might not seem so exciting.

For the next two weeks, Mattie kept an eye out for her bulbs to sprout
. A week ago, on their way home from school, she and Mark had gone down to the creek where a bunch of ferns grew every year. Mattie had taken Mom’s small hand trowel with her that morning and kept it in their bicycle basket to use later that afternoon. Mark had dug the ferns out while Mattie took each bunch to the bicycle basket, which she’d lined with newspapers. Mark had said the trowel made it easy, and in no time at all, they had the basket filled. Mattie had hardly been able to wait that day to head home and get the ferns planted. She knew that once they grew they would complement her garden, and she thought Mark’s frog would like the ferns, too.

At the time Mattie had planted the fiddlehead ferns, they were still curled up. The ferns were named that because they looked like the curled scroll on the end of a string instrument, such as a violin.

Now, as Mattie helped Mom pull some weeds on a Saturday afternoon, she spotted some green growth in her little garden.

“Oh, look, Mom!” she shouted, pointing to the spot. “My tulip bulbs are finally coming up.”

Mom smiled and nodded. “I knew they would, Mattie. You just needed to be patient.”

“I can’t wait till the flowers bloom and I can pick ’em,” Mattie said. “Tulips smell so good, and Mom, I bet they’ll make the kitchen smell nice when I cut you a bouquet for the table.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Mom agreed.

Mattie also noticed that the ferns she and Mark planted had unrolled and were starting to grow upward. Soon they would be feathered out and overlapping each other, creating a tropical-looking shaded area around Mark’s frog house. The ferns would also help to keep the water in the little frog’s pond cool from the afternoon sun during the hot summer months.

Mattie looked across the yard and spotted a robin with a worm in its mouth. She smiled. Just like she’d hoped, a pair of robins had made a nest in the bush outside their living-room window. It had been fun to show Ada and Perry the robin’s blue eggs. Any day now, they should be hearing the
peep, peep
of baby robins after they’d hatched.

Mom rose to her feet. “I need to see how the clothes on the line are doing. If you don’t want to continue pulling weeds, you’re free to do something else,” she told Mattie.

“Danki, Mom,” Mattie replied. “Think I’ll stay right here by my garden for now.”

“Okay.” Mom smiled and hurried away.

Mattie pulled a few more weeds until Mark came along and squatted on the grass beside her. “I hope you’re not gonna start decorating everything with flowers,” he said, dropping some colorful rocks into Mattie’s little garden.

“You’d better not put those too close to where my flowers are coming up,” Mattie warned.

“Oh, don’t worry….These few little pebbles won’t hurt your flowers.” Mark placed a couple more onto the soil; then he whispered, “Look, Mattie. There’s my little frosch sitting near the pool.” His eyes widened as he pointed to the ferns beside the frog house.
“Ach
, there’s another frosch sitting between the ferns! I can’t believe there are actually two frogs livin’ in your garden, Mattie.”

Mattie looked at the spot where Mark had pointed. Sure enough, two little green frogs were just where he’d said. It seemed that her little garden was becoming a popular place. “They’re cute, aren’t they?” Mattie asked, looking back at Mark. “Maybe at night, when we’re lying in our beds, we’ll hear them croaking to each other.”

“Well, we know that the one frog is a male ’cause you heard it
ribet.”
He nodded and grinned. “Male frogs are the only ones that croak, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see if we hear the other one or not. It’ll be fun to watch ’em all spring and throughout the summer. And who knows…maybe other frogs will make this little garden their home, too.”

“I hope not too many,” Mattie said. “I don’t want frogs taking over my garden.”

Mark flapped his hand. “Aw, they won’t hurt anything, Mattie. Speaking of frogs…did ya hear all the peepers last night, down at the end of the field?”

“Peepers?” Mattie asked, tilting her head.

“Jah. They’re little frogs that make peeping sounds instead of ribeting, like other frogs do. Spring peepers are amphibious, and they live in marshy areas or temporary pools of water,” Mark explained.

“What does ‘amphibious’ mean?” Mattie wanted to know.

“It means they’re able to use either land or water,” Mark replied. “The peepers are probably down there where the water always collects after a heavy rain. In the spring, they need wet areas like that ’cause that’s where they lay their eggs.”