Toot and Puddle have planted a lovely garden, with vegetables and flowers. They’re looking forward to their homegrown food. Cousin Opal comes to help and is just as eager to eat some of the garden produce, but they have to patiently wait for everything to grow. Then one morning, checking on the garden, they’re disappointed and puzzled to see someone else has been eating their new plants, during the night. They build a fence, replant things, and put up a sign warning whoever is visiting that this is a private garden. No good. Plants keep disappearing. Finally they sit up all night in the garden, waiting to see who has been after their tender spinach and baby lettuce. It’s quite a surprise. Wisely, they decide not to confront this visitor, but instead they plant extra, plenty enough now to share. Very nice story, and I sure can relate! The only odd thing was that their night-time visitor didn’t stand upright, wear clothes or talk like Toot, Puddle and Opal. He looked like normal wildlife, not personified. It’s just weird to me when a fiction book has some animals that talk and act somewhat humanlike, and others that are just mute animals. However, Toot and Puddle in the story, found it odd themselves that their visitor didn’t answer when they spoke to her!
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 8/10/24.
