The Daring Rooftop Rescue

  ***

  The second morning after he’d moved in, as he was scrubbing the squeaky floors, Johnny thought glumly about the many hours of hard labor ahead of him.

  Worse, he was feeling even more socially isolated now than he’d been before. Everyone in Forest Towne thought that he had become snooty, and they were avoiding him like the plague. He’d overheard some nasty gossip:

  “Johnny doesn’t know his place anymore,” his neighbors were saying.

  and:

  “Johnny is sure putting on airs since he got that house.”

  and:

  “That badger is acting like a total jerk!”

  But he was not a jerk. He wanted everyone to understand that he was still the same lovable Johnny Badger as ever. He was just a bit higher up in the world than they were, that’s all.

  Then he had a brainstorm.

  “I’ll throw a fixer upper party!”

  He almost knocked over the mop bucket in his excitement. Yes! He’d invite Forest Towne’s most important citizens to help him with the work. The same ones who had ignored him for so long would now have a chance to get on his good side. And wouldn’t it be fun to watch them getting their paws dirty for a change!

  They’ll be happy to come, won’t they? He thought gleefully, rubbing his paws together. Of course they will! All I have to do is make some Punch Fabuloso.

  6: Johnny Brews Punch Fabuloso

  Johnny immediately dropped his cleaning chores and fished out a pail from under the kitchen sink. Then he headed outside to pick grapes for the Punch Fabuloso.

  The vine running up the trellis alongside the house bore many ripe grapes ready for picking. The best ones, unfortunately, were also the farthest away.

  “How do I get up there?” Johnny mused. “I’m not made for high places.”

  This was a ticklish problem for an earth-bound animal like Johnny. He thought of contacting Chester Squirrel for help. Surely a high-climber like Chester would find it easy to go after the topmost grapes.

  “No, he wouldn’t come,” Johnny decided. “Nobody will come until I have the Punch Fabuloso ready.”

  He went to the shed where he found two ladders. One was long but old and very shabby. The other was a shorter stepladder still in fairly good condition.

  “This one should work ... I think.”

  He brought the stepladder out and set it up alongside the trellis.

  “Well, here goes nothing.”

  Johnny began mounting the ladder, one hand gripping the rough wood, the other hanging onto the pail.

  “Steady, Johnny ... you’re almost there!”

  He stood tiptoe on the topmost step and stretched out a foreleg. He wrapped a paw around a bunch of the highest and very best grapes.

  “Got it!”

  The ladder started to wobble. Johnny shifted his weight, but this only made matters worse, soon he was going back and forth like a clock pendulum. The grape bunch broke away from the vine, cutting Johnny’s flimsy handhold.

  “Help!” he cried uselessly – but there was nobody around to steady the ladder.

  Johnny dropped the pail and dug his claws into the house siding. This left an unsightly gouge, but Johnny didn’t care about that under the dangerous circumstances.

  The ladder stopped wobbling. Johnny climbed down carefully and deposited the grapes into the pail. He looked up the trellis at another bunch of choice grapes, nearly as high as the last one.

  “Well ... this certainly is interesting.”