Spring Break

The animals in the Land of the Flowered Bed woke up on a grey morning.

"Another boring day," Cookies grumbled, drinking his coffee as he angrily read the comics.

"I do wish the sun would come out," Pumble said, looking annoyed. "If the sun doesn't come out, the flowers won't bloom. If the flowers don't bloom, I can't have fresh pollen. If I don't have fresh pollen, how am I going to make my pollen jam? What is spring without biscuits and pollen jam? That's like toast without honey!"

Even Hairy was starting to feel the effects of the foggy, grey weather. "It's not England," he said, going to the window to draw back the curtains. "At least in England--"

The others waited around the kitchen table, waiting for him to finish. They often sat around the table in the morning and had a tea party. It was nice to travel to the edge of the Land of the Traveling Bed every now and again. Finally, Pumble looked up from his novel. Pumble had a thing for trashy dime-store romance novels.

"What does England have?" he asked. "Well?"

"Have you looked outside?" Hairy gasped when he finally reclaimed his voice.

"Yup," Pumble said, smacking on a cracker. "Utter desolation and bleakness, as usual."

"No!" Hairy cried, shaking his head violently. "There's trees!"

"Trees?!?" Pumble cried. "You're joking!"

"Come see for yourself," Hairy said, pulling the blinds open. Pumble rushed down from the table and over to the window.

"There's trees! There's actually trees out there!"

"And a bush," Hairy added helpfully. The seals hopped to the window and jumped up and down barking and shouting in glee, clapping their arms happily. Cookies rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get down from the table and there's going to be a stick outside, and ya'll are going to think it's a tree. Then you're going to giggle like a bunch of monkeys because you're a bunch of immature ruffians--"

"Well come down and see for yourself," Hairy sniffed.

"I can see perfectly fine from where I am-" Cookies began snidely when his eyes traveled to the window. His jaw dropped open and he sat staring quietly. "Well I declare," he said finally, "There's two trees and a bush out there. And flowers to boot!"

"That's not a bush that's a mountain laurel," Pumble said in a knowledgeable tone.

"And how do you know that?" Cookies challenged.

"I was born next to one," Pumble sniffed, sticking his nose in the air.

The seals barked excitedly and bumped the window with their noses.

"That's a great idea!" Hairy said, beaming. "Let's go enjoy the day outside! It's Spring Break, after all!"

The animals set up a hammock between the two trees and set up a couple of lawn chairs with some glasses of fruit juice. The sun burst through the clouds and a cool breeze set through the patio.

"This is nice," Hairy said, as he leaned against the chair and shut his eyes. The sun gently warmed his face.

"Very nice," Pumble said, as he ate a bowl of ice cream and rolled over to get sun on his back.

The seals swung back and forth in the hammock, grinning broadly.

"It's all right," Cookie said, trying to tame his smile. "It's a nice Spring Break, after all."