As dormice often do, Lerot stopped for a few minutes on an oak branch.

He had searched for nuts since dusk. But it was only the middle of summer, so most foods remained raw. In this big oak, for instance, hundreds of little green acorns struggled through the slow process of ripening. Lerot would have to wait a month or so before he began tasting the larger ones. Until then he’d rely on whatever else he could find, on the ground and in other trees.

Now he sat on his branch, taking in a summer night from a spot he visited often. His large black eyes would seem kind and warm to someone looking at him because the night filled him with kindness and warmth. His tawny fur even looked softer than some others' bristly coats.

"Hey, dormouse!"

Interrupted, Lerot jerked his bushy tail twice but remained in place.

""Hey, Lerot!" Now he looked down from the oak. It was Kate. He had liked Kate ever since they met last spring. They often looked for food together, and both of them enjoyed going to the local fairs with each other. He usually enjoyed the way she had ideas, running right off to try them.

""Hi, Kate! What’s new?" he called back.

"Let’s go try the orchard. I’ll bet there’s some food there."

"Sure!" He scrambled along the branch, down the oak, and met her next to the root of the tree. "Let’s go," he said, all warmed up for the trip.

She paused a moment to look at him. So Lerot, eager to leave, urged her on by playfully nipping her on the nexk. "C’mon, kiddo." Then they scampered off in the moonlight.

The French farmer’s orchard grew on the other side of the swamp, opposite the dormouse colony. Kate and Lerot passed many of their friends on the way to the swamp, and mentioned the orchard just in case any wanted to come along. At the swamp’s edge they turned to follow it around to the other side, chattering all the way.

"Remember," Lerot said, "the farmer sets traps for us."

"Oh, don’t worry. He uses wooden ones," she answered." Jeanne gnawed her way out of one last month in a little while."

"Let’s just eat the stuff on the trees, okay?"

"All right. Unless nothing has ripened yet."

The first apple tree they saw in the moonlight already looked heavy with young fruit. "Let’s go!" he said. They ran up and all through the branches; but the apples were all too green even for them. They sat a minute on a branch together.

"Maybe he has another tree somewhere," Lerot suggested.

"I’m starved. Let’s try," and Kate scrambled down the trunk before he answered. But all the apple trees only had very small, green apples. All the nut trees barely had anything either, no walnuts, no chestnuts, and no hickory nuts. Nothing on these trees could feed them.

"I’ll bet some berries have come out, Kate. I’ll run over and see," he said turning away.

Although she was getting tired, Kate decided, "I’m coming, too." Ah, luck! Some raspberries on the farmer's few bushes had turned red. They ate all they could find, then sat a little while relaxing.

"Glad you remembered these," she quipped, "but I want more to eat."

"Oh, let’s go back. We still have half the night to look around the colony." She argued a bit, but finally gave up. Maybe they’d find things along the way back.

Yes indeed they could. Kate spotted a bright group of fruit along the orchard’s edge, and ran towards it.

"It’s a trap," Lerot yelled after her.

"I can gnaw my way out," she squealed, hungrily dashing for the fruit. Snap! Lerot scrambled up to help her get out with some of the food.

"Kate, pass some out to me," he panted, hungry and tired of running.

"Gnaw your way in here," she retorted. This time he disliked her idea. But Lerot could only grab a bar of the cage and begin nibbling at it.

Nothing happened, although he bit harder and harder. He hurt his teeth and only had a mouthful of little bitter flakes. Suddenly he realized something.

"The farmer bought new traps. It’s aluminum!" he squeaked.

This horrified Kate enough to stop her from eating. She couldn’t speak for a full minute. Then she chattered and squealed, bit the bars, tried to bend them or break them, till she gave up in a corner, frightened.

"Oh, Lerot, help me out of here. What can we do?" she cried.

"Maybe we can just open the door again!" It seemed simple enough with just a lever so pull down, releasing the door. Struggle as he did, though, he failed to budge the door; a spring held it tight. "Kate, sit there and enjoy dinner. I’ll go back for help."

"But the farmer might come out and take me for his dinner!"

"They’re not like us; they sleep at night. I’ll be back in just a while."

And the food lost all its appeal to her. It seemed to Kate like dawn couldn’t wait to arrive tonight; she imagined the sky grew lighter every minute.

Finally Lerot came back with three more dormice he’d met coming to the orchard.

"You’re here! Hurry, hurry, before dawn comes!"

"We have hours yet," Jacques told her.

"Jeanne, tell him to hurry." Jeanne just told her to calm down.

Hugo, the third new dormouse, said they would start right to work and grabbed onto the latch. "Let’s get to it, friends," he said.

Jeanne caught hold of the latch. Then Jacques snuggled up as close as possible to Hugo to help with the latch. But he could only fit one paw onto the latch. Kate reached out between the bars, but couldn’t find room for her paws among the others already on it.

"Go ahead, grab over ours," Hugo said.

Kate tried but, "I can’t get a grip over them." They started to argue until Lerot interrupted.

"Wait, relax. I can’t even get in there; so I’ll supervise. Kate, you get ready to run out. On the count of three everybody pull down. Ready?" They all jerked their bushy tails. "One, two, three." They pulled and slowly, slowly the latch began to move downward.

"Pull, you dormice," Lerot piped, "Pull!" It moved some more, but gradually they each began to run out of energy. The latch stopped moving. All the dormice had grown weaker. Now the latch crept back up, bit by bit, in spite of more and more tired pulling. Finally everyone quit at once and the latch snapped back into place.

"Oh, oh, oh," moaned Kate in resignation. "The farmer will come out tomorrow and take me to his house. He’ll tell his wife to fix me up as a side-dish for dinner and I’ll never see the apples ripen."

Everyone wanted to help; then a moment later they all felt sorry for her. Poor Kate couldn’t even get a hug goodbye, though. Lerot sat next to her, leaning on the cage bars. He chattered quietly to her about her soft fur and the fun of tumbling over each other. He avoided saying he would miss that.

Hugo quietly came to them and nudged Lerot. "I’ll go back to see if any of the old dormice have better ideas. We still have almost two hours before dawn."

"Kate, cheer up; help’s on the way."

"Thank you, Hugo. Tell everyone I’ll miss them and …" she squeaked and dropped her sentence in the middle. Hugo scrambled off towards the edge of the swamp, to the path to the colony.

As he moved along the path he saw a dark shape in the path ahead. What had blocked the way since he first came to the orchard? It moved. Did tonight mean the end of Hugo, too? He wondered and slowed down, but kept going so he could find out for certain.

"Dormouse!" came a call from the thing. He recognized the gruff voice and moved closer. A cloud shifted, spreading the moon’s glow on his old friend Henri Snapper.

"Turtle!" he squeaked, running up to him. "Greetings, Henri."

"Good evening, Hugo. Very nice moonlight tonight for a pleasant walk, don’t you think?"

"Yes, but unless I can find smarter dormice in the colony the dawn will bring sadness to us all."

"What’s wrong?" Henri’ s tone of voice imparted deep concern for his little friend.

"One of the farmer’s traps has caught Kate." Hugo explained that she hadn’t gnawed her way out because the cage was aluminum. And he related the struggle of the five paws on the latch, and finally the sadness Kate expressed when he’d left. He finished, "So I must hurry off now."

"Wait." Henri asked. "Where are they?" Hugo explained where the others waited. "Fine."

Hugo couldn’t understand what was so fine, nor why Henri detained him so long. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Henri interrupted him.

"Go back to your friends in the orchard. Tell them I’ll arrive in half an hour or so to help as best I can." Hugo waited, expecting an explanation.

"Hurry, they may get desperate." Henri always had good ideas, so Hugo turned back just wondering what the plan involved.

The good news failed to brighten anyone’s face, however, when he told the others. What can that big, slow turtle do, they asked. Will he just crush the cage, and Kate with it? Will he try to carry it back to the colony before dawn, as slow as he is? Hugo, though, trusted Henri.

They waited. Jeanne talked with Kate most of the time. Hugo, Jacques, and Lerot, meanwhile, tried other ways of opening the latch. Levers to pry it, stones to hold it open bit by bit, and together bending the bars. Nothing worked. They hoped Henri had a good idea because Hugo never did go back to tell the colony. They waited what seemed nearly an hour.

Henri arrived ponderously pushing weeds and twigs aside. "Hmm. As I thought. Who can help?" Everyone chattered and jerked their tails, even Kate in the cage. "Fine."

"Jeanne and Jacques, get ready to open the door. Hugo, hook the latch when I set it. Lerot … just give Kate a hug when she’s out."

"How can you open the latch?" Jeanne asked. "Three of us couldn’t even fit to grab hold hold of it. And your arms can’t reach high enough, and they’re so far apart that …"

""Watch. Everybody ready?" Tails anxiously jerked a "yes."

"Fine."

Then with his powerful snapping turtle jaws, Henri bit the latch. Slowly, but much faster than the dormice’s paws, his closing jaws pulled the latch all the down. Everyone chattered hooray.

Henri interrupted them with a grunt. They stopped, but no one knew what he meant. The door wouldn’t open for Jeanne and Jacques. Henri grunted again with his mouth full of the latch, briefly looking down at his nose.

"Hugo!" cried Lerot, "the latch! Hook the latch!" Hugo jumped over and hooked it, Henri released it, Jeanne and Jacques lifted the door, and Kate ran out of the newly set trap and jumped right on top of Lerot.

"Oh, joy! Oh, Lerot! Oh, friends! Oh, Henri!" Kate squealed.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she repeated as she ran around jumping and nudging and hugging them.

Hugo noticed Henri looking for something, so he asked what.

"A stick to set off the trap." They banded together and found one in a few minutes. Henri took it in his mouth to jab the trigger spring. Snap! "There."

Not just Kate, but all the dormice wanted to thank Henri. "What can we do for you?" Jacques asked, finally.

"Just think a little. I like to keep my friends." Then Henri sent them home.

At the far end of the swamp, where the moon set, Lerot spotted a peanut one of the farm children had dropped. Perching over it he wondered if they hadn’t really just set a different sort of trap.


--END--