Yori’s Snowman Secret — Under the hush-hush snow, Yori rolled one more ball across the forest clearing, wanting to finish a snow friend before the evening blue filled the pines. Read the full story →
Under the hush-hush snow, Yori rolled one more ball across the forest clearing, wanting to finish a snow friend before the evening blue filled the pines. The snow squeaked under his paws, and his scarf tickled his chin. He had made the belly lumpy, the buttons crooked, and the twig arms just the right kind of wild. Now he lifted the head, proud of every cold, aching paw-print that had helped make it.
Something tapped inside the snowball: tick, tick. Yori nearly dropped it. He pressed his ear to the packed snow and heard a tiny rattle, like a dry bean in a cup. “Who’s hiding in there?” he whispered. He opened one careful thumb-hole and found a brown pine seed, snug and safe where nobody ever thought to look. The wind must have tucked it into the snow while he worked.
Yori set the seed back in the snowman’s round head, then gave the face a pebble smile to keep the secret cheerful. From that winter on, snowmen have stood in yards and clearings with brave little smiles, guarding lost seeds until spring can find them. If you spot Yori’s snow friend, can you guess where the tiny tick, tick is sleeping?
