“Ah, this is the life,” Figgy thought to himself as he drifted along the river close to the shore in the Lucky Lucy. Miss Agra and Grimpus Leatherfoot were still keeping company with him, but since the boat wasn’t large enough for them all, the two of them walked alongside the river bank, occasionally disappearing into the woods to forage for nuts and berries. Agra had brought along a nice tent that Grimpus carried for her. It was getting toward fall and the weather was perfect – just a touch of crisp in the morning. So Agra slept in the tent, Grimpus slept wherever it is that bears sleep (do they sleep? Sometimes Fig and she conferred on this topic and agreed that they’d never actually caught him at it) and Figgy preferred to sleep in the boat.
On this particular day, Agra and Grimpus had gone off exploring and Fig was enjoying the steady musical buzzing of the cicadas. In fact, he was singing along with them, not that they could tell. It was a rousing old ditty that was a favorite of frog mothers to sing to their tadpoles, called “You’ll be Jumping Soon.” It went like this:
Oh dear little tadpoles
With your wriggling tails
And your stubby growths
That will turn into toes
Keep eating the algae
And the duckweed, too
And before you know it,
You’ll be jumping soon.
Just look at your papa
How high he can jump
But he started like you
With nary a stump
Keep eating bug larvae
And green mosses, too
And before you know it,
You’ll be jumping soon.
Fig was quite pleased at how well the tune went with the bass notes laid down by the cicadas. He was getting ready to launch into another rendition of it, when he detected a rhythmical “whump, whump, whump…” sound that puzzled him. Before he even had a chance to investigate, something hit him in the head and knocked him right out of the boat!
He came up sputtering and was shocked to see a fox gathering up out of the water a sash with two large balls on the ends, and calmly getting into his boat and shoving off with the oars.
“Wait! You can’t take my boat!” Fig cried out in dismay. The fox tied his sash around his waist and turned to face him. “Allow me to introduce myself – I am Phineas Fox, and although I sincerely regret relieving you of your handsome boat, I am in need of it.” A nice little speech, indeed, for a thief! Fig swam furiously to catch up to the boat with the intention of jumping in to re-take it, but as soon as he got close, he was rewarded with a clap on the head from one of his own traitorous oars. He reeled back, somewhat stunned and clambered up on the bank, watching his beloved Lucky Lucy being rowed away with admirable speed.
“Oh, by the way,” Phineas Fox called out, his voice getting harder to hear as he started to disappear from view around the next bend, “your singing was top notch! I quite enjoyed the concert! Ne’er fear – I’ll return your fine boat to you when I’m done with it!”
And with that he was gone. And Fig Newton sat on the side of the river, bereft.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Oh, that dastardly Phineas Fox and his bola!
This has been Fiction Friday with Lynniebeemuseoday.
Fig Newton Part 1
Fig Newton Part 2
Fig Newton Part 3
Fig Newton Part 6
When I get over the shock of Fig Newton losing the Lucky Lucy, I’ll probably delete this post.
Lynniebeemuseoday 
Such a lovely beginning to the story. But it rapidly slid from a “G” to a “PG” rating with the appearance of that bounder, The Fox. I stopped hoping that Callie and Isaac would be reading the story to Lucy for fear of her tender sensibilities. Let’s hope that things begin to look up again next time for Fig!
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Things took a surprising turn, didn’t they? I suspect Fig will rally to the occasion. 🐸 🚤
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