The Digglers

Thump, Pop, Heck and Snitch were young rabbits. They were brothers now old enough to leave their mother. Although they all lived in the same warren, they each had their own section and next year they'd be looking for a mate.

The warren was in a field that bordered a small wood. At the other side of the wood is a primary school. The young rabbits played in the wood and they would often peep at the children playing in the playground.

As the spring turned to summer, the rabbits watched in awe as their wood changed, different flowers, different smells and different dangers. More people went for walks in the wood and some brought dogs. Dogs, their mum had told them all about dogs and when was spotted they scuttered down their burrows.

The trouble began one day when Danielle was going to school. She always took a packed lunch for her dinner. She had watched her mum pack the sandwiches and had notice she'd been given an apple. Danielle quite liked apples but this apple was a green one and she hated green ones. She now opened her lunch box, took out the apple and threw it into the grass at the side of the wood.

It was a beautiful morning and after breakfast, Thump, Pop, Heck and Snitch met to play. They decided to explore the wood. They chased each other round the trees and jumped in the long grass. Snitch suddenly spied the green apple.
'Wow!' what a find, he thought.

Of all the rabbits, Snitch was the greediest and when he saw how juicy it was, he had no intention of sharing it with his brothers. He was going to take it back to his burrow and eat it himself!

Thump, Pop and Heck couldn't believe it when they saw Snitch roll the apple back to his burrow. How he enjoyed eating it however, he decided to leave some for later. He went back to the wood to find his brothers but they were nowhere to be seen. He asked the other animals if they'd seen them but no-one had. Snitch spent the rest of the day by himself but he didn't care, he dreamt of eating the rest of the apple.

The next day after breakfast, he went to find his brothers. He spotted them under a tree eating grass. When he hopped over to them, he was disappointed when they didn't want anything to do with him and they skipped away leaving Snitch all by himself.

Everyday, the same thing happened. His brothers would not let him join in their games or even be with them. Snitch was now feeling very lonely and he tried to keep busy by cleaning his burrow.

The long summer days changed into the damp, misty days of autumn and the leaves began to fall from the trees. Still, Snitch couldn't get his brothers to play with him. The woodland creatures were gathering their winter stores of nuts and berries. Thump, Pop and Heck were busy rolling nuts and berries into the part of the burrow they shared for their winter food. Sadly, Snitch went about collecting his food on his own. He decided that things weren't fun on your own. The wood and the burrow didn't seem the same when you had no-one to share it with.

The autumn days turned to winter bringing heavy blizzards. The woodland animals stayed in their homes trying to keep warm. Many were having their winter sleep. It was a long, lonely winter for Snitch.

At long last, the wood emerged from its winter coat and hazy sunlight dazzled the undergrowth. The snow had now melted and the first flowers of spring, tiny snowdrops began to pop up their heads. They were soon followed by the beautiful golden daffodils. Snitch felt confident that with the coming of spring, his brothers would have forgotten all about the apple and things would be as they were before. Alas, he was wrong. When he went to visit his brothers they still didn't want to know him.
'Go away!' they shouted. 'You wouldn't share your apple, so you can't share us!'

Sadly, poor Snitch went back to his burrow. Just as he was about to go in, he noticed something growing outside that had not been there at the start of winter.

As the days passed and summer came around once more, Snitch, realised what was growing outside the entrance to the burrow. It was a tiny apple tree. When he had cleaned his burrow in the autumn and he had thrown out the remains, the apple core, a pip from the apple must have started to grow. Snitch was excited and race off to tell his brothers. He told them what had happened.

'Soon the tree will get much bigger and will be full of apples,' he said.
'Well,' said Thump, 'you'll have as many apples as you can eat!'
'Don't want them,' said Snitch 'I'd rather have you. You can have all the apples,' and he hopped sadly back to his burrow.

His brothers ran after him and hugged him. They realised that Snitch was sorry and had meant what he had said and they forgave him. How happy Snitch was that he now had his beloved brothers back instead of a stupid apple. He said he was sorry for being greedy and not sharing. He had learnt his lesson.

Over the years, the apple tree grew and just as Snitch had predicted it was endowed with lots of apples. The brothers shared the apples but now they had their own families who help to eat the juicy green apples.

Little did Danielle know the trouble she had caused when she had thrown away the green apple on her way to school!

The End