A mother cardinal perched next to him.  “Young man, it is too dangerous for you to be up this high,” she warned.  But Nutcracker didn’t listen; he continued to scurry up the branches.  The mother cardinal followed.  “Young man, you don’t understand.  This tree can be very dangerous when the wind blows.  Even the birds stay close to the lower branches on a day like today.”  But still Nutcracker wiggled higher.  He wanted to touch the tippy top branch and maybe pull a pinecone to take home to Peanut.  He was almost there when an icy, cold blast of wind swept across the tree top.  The tippy top branch bent from side to side, creaking and snapping.  Nutcracker felt dizzy.  The sky was swirling above him when he lost his grip and rolled head over tail down through layer upon layer of branches of limbs, needles and pinecones.

“OOOuuuch, oooooh, yeow, aaaaaghhh!”  Nutcracker called out as he came to sudden thud! Landing right in the middle of what was once a cardinal’s nest.

His eyes opened slowly to see the mother cardinal standing on a branch above him, her wing resting on her hip.  “I shouldn’t even ask since you were so rude but are you OK?”

“I think so” Nutcracker answered, his face turning red from the embarrassing fall. Pulling himself over to the edge of the nest and trying to crawl out without tipping the nest over. He looked up just in time to see the three crows bobbing on the end of a nearby branch, “Well, ‘‘fellas, I guess someone forgot to tell the little caterpillar he can’t fly ’til he grows up to be a butterfly.” Again they flew off laughing and cawing like bird hyenas.

“You had better go home young man,” the mother cardinal scolded.  “You are just like my Arnie.  He doesn’t listen either and is always getting himself into trouble.  Now skedaddle home before I peck your little tail.”  She flew away.

Nutcracker crawled down the tree.  He waited in the patch of grass for the right moment to dart back across the open field trying to figure out how he could tell Peanut about this adventure without the embarrassing details.

Next:  Back to the tree: