Barney the Frog's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

Billy's warning still hung in the air when the door scraped open again. A muskrat pushed in, then a pair of soaked squirrels, then a hedgehog carrying a bundle. Barney counted eleven new bodies in under a minute. The shed groaned. Frogs pressed their backs to the wall. The newt got stepped on and squeaked. Warm air turned close and wet. Outside, more shapes moved up the slope through the rain, slow, heads down. Barney climbed back onto the crate. From there he could see the doorway and the path beyond it. A rabbit stood in the mud with her kits, staring at the packed room. She did not come in. She just stood. That was the look Barney had promised to prevent. The look of giving up in the rain. "We can't fit them," Frank Rabbit said at his elbow. "Not one more." "They'll sit down out there," Barney said. "They'll sit down and stop moving." He hopped off the crate and pushed through legs and tails to the door. He needed a second dry place, now, and he had nothing to build one with. Then something shifted in the shadow beside the fire ring. A long green coil unwound from behind the woodpile. Yellow eyes. A flicking tongue. Sammy Snake. Barney had not seen them come in. Snakes moved when no one was watching. "You've been under that wood the whole time," Barney said. "Warm spot," Sammy said. "I know another one." Barney waited. "Hollow under the leaning rocks. Where the bear cut his pine. Dry floor. Roof of stone. Big enough for twice this crowd." Sammy's tongue flicked. "I den there in cold weather. It's empty now." "Why didn't you say so an hour ago?" "No one asked a snake." Barney turned to Billy Bear by the fire. "Take a torch. Take Frank. Lead half of them up to the rocks. Sammy shows the way." Billy was already reaching for a split pine brand. Frank pulled his hood up again. Barney went out into the rain and hopped to the rabbit in the mud. "Follow the bear," he said. "There's a second room. Stone roof. Dry floor. Come on." The rabbit blinked at him. Then she picked up the smallest kit and stepped onto the path. Half the shed emptied behind Billy's torch. Sammy poured ahead through the wet grass, a green ribbon in the firelight. The line of animals followed, kits and squirrels and the hedgehog, up the slope toward the leaning rocks. The muskrat brought up the rear. Barney watched them go until the torch was a spark in the trees. Rain ran off his back. The shed behind him breathed easier. No one was sitting down in the mud. Then Frank came running back down the path alone, waving both arms. "Barney," he called. "There's someone already in the rocks. And he won't let us in."