Harold the Snowman
It was a very cold, but sunny winter day in the Big Dark Forest. Racum Raccoon and Mad Dog Wolf were playing in the schoolyard. It was recess time.
“What do you want to do now?” asked Mad Dog Wolf.
“I don’t know,” said Racum. “Why don’t we build a snowman?”
“A snowman,” said Mad Dog. “I don’t know how to build one.”
“You’ve never built a snowman before,” said Racum.
“No,” said Mad Dog.
“Well,” said Racum. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“Let’s build one, then” said Mad Dog.
Racum took a big handful of snow and started packing it into a snowball. Mad Dog did the same thing.
“You know,” said Mad Dog. “This is fun.”
“Yes,” said Racum. “I once heard about a snowman who came to life.”
“Imagine,” said Mad Dog. “Imagine if our snowman came to life, too.”
“That would be a lot of fun,” said Racum. “But it would never happen.”
“Too bad,” said Mad Dog.
The two friends continued to build their snowman. They were standing back admiring it, when the school bell rang.
“Come on, Mad Dog,” said Racum. “We can’t be late. We’ll come back at lunch time and see him.”
“Okay,” said Mad Dog.
The two friends disappeared into the school, with all the other animal children of the forest. That’s when something strange, but wonderful happened. A bright light flashed in the sky above and struck the snowman on the top of his head. Racum and Mad Dog’s snowman came to life.
“Gee,” said the snowman. “It sure is nice to be alive. I wonder where everyone is.”
The snowman heard voices coming from the school house.
“Oh,” said the snowman. “Their in school. I think I’ll go to school, too. I might learn something.”
The snowman entered the school.
“Hey look,” the children shouted to Mrs. Wise, the school teacher, when they saw the snowman. “We have a visitor.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Wise. “It sure looks that way. Please come in and take a seat.”
The snowman did as he was told. He was very excited about being in school.
“Now, class,” said Mrs. Wise. “It looks like we have a new student in our school, today. Would you please come up here to the front and tell us a little about yourself?”
“My name is Harold the Snowman,” said the snowman. “I just came to life today.”
Both Racum and Mad Dog looked at each other and then they looked outside the school window. Sure enough, their snowman was gone.
“Racum,” whispered Mad Dog. “Our snowman really did come to life.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Racum, shaking his head.
“Now class,” said Mrs. Wise. “We must take our readers out and get to work. Harold, would you start reading on page 3.”
Harold looked inside the desk and found a brand new reader. He flipped through the pages until he found the proper page.
“Once upon a time,” Harold read.
Harold was a very good reader. In fact he was so good that Mrs. Wise let him continue reading until the lunch bell rang. Harold was having so much fun reading, he didn’t notice that the little school house was getting very hot. Harold was beginning to melt.
Harold went to stand up, but he found that the lower half of his body was gone. He looked down onto the floor and saw a huge puddle of water.
“Oh no!” cried Harold. “I’m melting.”
“Come on Harold,” said Racum, who had just come over to Harold’s desk, to see his new friend. “We can go outside now.”
“I can’t move,” cried Harold.
“But why not?” asked Racum.
“I’m melting,” said Harold sadly.
“Oh no!” exclaimed Racum. “Mad Dog, Mad Dog, come quick. Harold is melting.”
Mad Dog came over to his friends.
“What’s wrong Racum?” asked Mad Dog.
“Harold’s melting,” said Racum, pointing to the huge puddle of water on the floor.
Mad Dog picked the rest of Harold up and set him outside in the snow.
“Thanks,” said Harold. “That feels so much better.”
Racum and Mad Dog worked hard during their lunch recess to rebuild Harold’s bottom half. The bell rang just as they were finished.
“You’re going to have to stay outside,” said Racum. “It is much too warm inside the school for you.”
“But,” complained Harold. “I’ll miss school.”
“No you won’t,” said Mad Dog.
“Why?” asked Harold.
“Turn around,” said Mad Dog.
Harold turned around and saw that Racum and Mad Dog had rebuilt him right beside the window of the school house.
“Oh good!” said Harold. “Now I can still go to school and not melt.”
Racum, Mad Dog and Harold did very well in school that winter. At recess time, the three friends had a lot of fun together.
However, one spring day, Racum and Mad Dog found that Harold was gone.
“I guess he melted,” said Racum sadly.
“I’m going to miss Harold,” said Mad Dog. “He was a good friend.”
“Yes, he was,” said Racum.
The spring turned into summer and soon winter was upon the Big Dark Forest again.
“Let’s build Harold again,” said Mad Dog.
“Yes,” said Racum.
The two friends began to build a snowman. He didn’t quite turn out like Harold, but he did come to life. Every year, the two friends built a new snowman and they had a new friend to play with until the warm spring sun started to shine.
Moral of this Story:
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