Contents 1 A Birthday Party 1 2 Seven Pets 6 3 An Extraordinary Present 9 4 A Strange Disappearance 13 5 The Cat in Court 19 6 On the Path 26 7 Meanwhile 32 8 The Turtle Reports 34 9 To the Pines 38 10 The Mysterious Mystery of the Missing Pets 42 11 The Dark Forest 47 12 A Hungry Fellow 51 13 A Fright in the Night 59 14 Catamounts 63 15 A Taste of Turtle 66 16 What the Trout Had to Say 72 17 Because the Fish Can’t Fly 81 18 Into the Marsh 86 19 After the Animals 101 20 The End of the River 106 21 The Turtle Makes a Discovery 112 22 A Reunion 122 23 Waiting for Spring 131
1 A Birthday Party Long ago and far away lived a little girl named Lillian Little Lillian lived in a large house with her mother and father her aunt and uncle and her seven brothers Her aunt’s name was Alice her uncle’s name was Nat and her seven brothers were named Tim Tom Tod Tad Ted Troy and William At the time of our story Lillian was about to celebrate her sixth birthday She had celebrated a third birthday and a fourth birthday and a fifth and would go on to celebrate a seventh birthday and an eighth birthday and even a thirteenth birthday and beyond but it is her sixth birthday that concerns us For it was on Lillian’s sixth birthday that she received a fish It was a tradition in the large house for each child to receive a pet on his or her sixth birthday and the tradition began this way When Tim the oldest boy was five years old he found a stray puppy and wanted to keep it His parents wouldn’t allow him to keep it however They thought he was much too young to take care of a pet Tim cried And cried His parents afraid that he might dry up and blow away from so much crying promised him a puppy on his sixth birthday And so when his sixth birthday came they had to get him one because they promised
