Jerome

"Look out where you're walking! You almost stepped on me. Why is it no-one looks at the ground, I'm always moving so no-one can step on me."

I looked down to see who was talking to me. That's when I first saw Jerome.

"Well who are you?" I asked, trying not to giggle. There was this very funny looking snake just in front of me.

"Never mind who I am, who are you and what are you doing out here in my woods? Didn't you see the sign that says "NO TRESSPASSING"? I put it up so people wouldnt come in here and disturb me. You can read can't you??"

"My name is Ralph and these woods now belong to my family. We just moved into the farmhouse over there and Yes I can read very well. Is your home around here?"

"Well yes, my home is here in the woods and my name is Jerome. I'm sorry I was so angry at you, but there have been so many people walking around in here that I had to stay in my house. This is the first day I've been out in a long time. Will there be others who will come out here?"

"No, my brothers and sisters will not come out here. They will have to help Mom and Dad with the work on the farm. My job will be feeding the chickens and ducks and our dogs, so I 'll have a lot of time to wander around through the woods. My dad might come out here to cut some trees for fire wood to heatr the farm house."

Cut Trees?? Oh no he mustn't cut trees, he just might cut down the one where I live. Then what will I do? Freeze thats what! When the snow comes I wont have any place to keep warm. I just know something terrible will happen to me. What will I do? Oh what will I do??"

Poor Jerome, he was really upset. I tried to calm him down, but it didn't help. He just moved farther into the woods talking to himself. I just followed him very quietly to see where he was going.

There it was ... a big tree standing right in front of me. Jerome went into a hole at the bottom of it. I could still hear him talking to himself I took off the scarf from my neck and tied it onto a branch, then turned around and ran all the way home.

That night at dinner, I told my Dad about Jerome and asked him not to cut the tree down. Dad said he would make a sign for me and I could put it on the tree.

Two days later, I was back at the tree where my scarf was hanging. I started to hammer the nail for the sign when Jerome came out to see what was going on.

"Good Morning Jerome, I've just put a sign on your tree so no-one will ever cut it down!" Jerome turned around and read the sign out loud.... "Jerome's Home"