As I went walking one May day
Out in the meadow and garden to play,
The bees were a’ buzzing around their hive,
Ladybugs crawled on my finger’s five,
Butterflies danced to a fairy song,
And a mysterious creature crawled along…
One fine May day Molly went out exploring. The early
morning sun shone on the whole world, and everything
to Molly…’come along, its a May day song’. Molly first
ran down to the little pond by the creek. Tall grasses
grew in one corner and a little wee frog sat on a log
right in the middle. Molly sat very quietly watching.
she loved frogs. She sang a little song she
remembered…
Froggy Boggy tried to jump
On a log and got a bump,
It made his eyes wink and frown
And turned his nose upside down.
The song made Molly laugh, and the wee frog jumped,
Kerplop, into the pond. This made Molly laugh even
more. ‘Goodbye, Froggy Boggy’,
she called to him as she skipped along the path
into the meadow. The whole meadow was full of
golden flowers. Molly liked to lie down on her back,
hidden by the tall grass and flowers.
She watched the clouds drift slowly by, and listened
to the bee’s buzz. A ladybug flew close and
landed on her nose! Molly felt like a wildflower herself
when she was very still in the meadow.
As she was heading up the hill, she heard
Mother calling. “Molly, molly, please go to the garden
and bring some lettuce for our lunch salad’.
Well, that was just where Molly was heading anyway.
She opened the garden gate and went to collect the
lettuce for her Mother. But when she looked,
the lettuce looked terrible! Something was very
wrong with it. It was full of holes, and some of it
was gone entirely, eaten right to the nub. Something
had been stealing their lettuce!
Molly gathered what she could and when she showed
her Mother, mama frowned and shook her head.
‘Oh dear, oh dear, this will not do, not do at all.
All our lettuce will disappear!'
Molly’s eyes were wide open. She wondered,
‘who could be stealing our lettuce!’
Early that evening, Molly went with her mama to the
garden. Mama had a saltshaker, and a big brown paper
bag, and a flashlight. Molly wondered what she
was going to do! When they got to the garden, Mama
said, ‘shhhhh, we will quietly watch and see
just who is taking our food!’ So they nestled down
on the straws path where they could clearly
see the lettuce patch. As evening settled, a damp
dew fell all around. Molly shivered.
The straw felt wet. The lettuce leaves looked washed,
with tiny beads of water on them. ‘Look there,’
said Mama. Molly looked where she was pointing.
Sure enough, something was munching the lettuce!
Molly peered to see what it was in the dark. SNAP!
Went Mama’s flashlight. The light went on and the beam
shone right on a very slow moving snail!
Mama rushed over and picked up the snail and
popped it in her brown paper bag.
SNAP! Off went the flashlight, and they nestled back
quietly to wait again. Before long, Mama whispered,
‘look, there’s another!’ I could see it moving right along
on the lettuce leaving a trail of holes as he munch,
munch, munched THEIR salad. SNAP!
On went the flashlight, and pop went the snail
in the brown paper bag. This time
Mama sprinkled a circle of salt all around
the lettuce patch. ‘This should help keep them away,’
she told Molly, ‘snails do not like salt!’
SNAP,
off went the flashlight, as they waited again.
By the time Mama had caught 5 lettuce thieves
that night, Molly had fallen asleep on the straw path.
Mama had put her sweater over her like
a blanket. When Molly woke up she was in her
own cozy bed. Up jumped Molly! ‘Mama, where are
all the snail thieves’ she asked? Mama showed her
the 5 snails in the brown paper bag. ‘Now that you
are up, we will go find a new home for them,’
said Mama.
Off they went right then, Molly still in her pajamas.
Down the trail to the pond, past Froggy Boggy’s
log, through the meadow full of flowers, bees, and
ladybugs, and over the creek bridge to where
the woods began. There in the soft moist moss,
along the creek, they gently put the 5 snails,
all curled up in their houses. ‘They will like it here,’
said Mama. ‘They love the wet, and there are sweet
wild plants for them to ear. Now they will leave
the people garden for the people!
Come along Molly, let’s go pick lettuce!’
As for those 5 snails down by the creek….
well, Molly checked on them, and sometimes
brought them leftover lettuce from the people’s garden.
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