HOW HAMMY AND GOPH SHARED THEIR LAST
Winter came. And the
snow! You couldn't see the ground, there was so much of
it. White and so cold that when you ran over to visit
each other, it burnt your paws. Hammy and Goph had run
out of food. It was winter, and they had to sleep. But
you can't sleep on an empty stomach.
"I was so fat!" moaned Hammy. "How I'll
get as thin as you, Goph, from hunger!"
"And what will I get then?" Goph wondered
anxiously.
"You won't be here at all," said Hammy sadly.
"Oh, yes, I will!" said Goph stubbornly.
"I'll take us to a special place. Crammed with so
much food, you couldn't eat it in a lifetime!"
"Don't worry about me," Hammy brightened up.
"I'll eat it alright! Let's go!"
So off they went... In the distance, on the edge of a
village, they saw a barn.
They went up to it. It covered half the sky!
"What is it?" asked Hammy quietly, looking
round.
"A storehouse. I saw them bringing peas in here from
the field! Let's look for a hole. You go round to the
right, and I'll go round to the left."
Goph ploughed his way through the snow and suddenly heard
someone's footsteps behind him. He turned round in alarm,
but it was Hammy.
"You craftly old thing," Hammy frowned.
"Sent me to the right, where the snow's knee-deep.
But there's a path behind you here."
Goph looked round, and it was true. There were footprints
behind him, and Hammy was treading in these prints.
Goph blinked and blinked. Then ploughed on.
"Well, who's right? Who's right?" Hammy
grumbled behind him.
"Oh, you are. You are," replied Goph,
gmdgingly. "Why don't you get off my back?"
"I'm not on your back. So there," Hammy puffed,
placing his paws in Goph's tracks. "But I should be.
It's windy." He thought for a moment and added:
"Almost blowing me over."
They came to the door. Squeezed through the crack under
it. And almost collapsed with delight! Light was pouring
through the tiny iced-up window—and all around lay
dried peas on a big sheet. So many peas they almost
reached up to the roof! Yum!
"I'm staying right here," spluttered Hammy with
his mouth full.
"So am I," said Goph.
What a time they had! Stuffing themselves to their
heart's content. They ate so much that they stopped
talking. Why talk if there's more to eat! Then they
stopped moving too. Why move if there's so much food you
feel too lazy to even stretch out a paw? But lazy or not,
they did stretch out their paws. They had to eat. No
matter how lazy they felt. One day Goph stretched out a
paw and took a handful of peas lying right next to Hammy.
"What are you taking mine for?" And Hammy
grabbed a handful from right under Goph's nose.
"Just look at you!" Goph jumped up. "Let's
divide them up!"
At first they each took a pea one by one and put it on
their pile. Then they got fed up and each took a handful
in turn.
"Your paw's bigger!" Hammy suddenly blurted
out. "It's just like a shovel! How about you using
one paw and me two?"
"Not likely!" Goph objected.
They measured the barn in strides. And dug out a ditch
boundary in the middle from wall to wall. Now Hammy and
Goph did not sleep at night. They scurried furtively over
to the other side and dragged some peas over to their
own. There wasn't any time to eat. They tried to carry
away as much as they could. And in the daytime they
watched each other: to make sure the
other one didn't steal any peas. They stood guard. Their
eyelids drooping...
And pinched themselves in the side to stop falling
asleep, then went on watching again.
One night they were each going back to their own half
with their booty, when they bumped foreheads. They fought
hard, fur flying, biff, bonk, bang! When they came to in
a snowdrift and looked up to the broken window above
them, Hammy groaned:
"I`m never going back to that barn again."
"Neither am I," groaned Goph.
And they set off home together. Each went silently into
his hole. They were hungry. Hammy rummaged about on the
shelf. And found one piece of grain. Just one. He looked
at it, grasped it in his paw and went to see Goph. Then
he broke the grain in half and gave one half to his
friend.
"Have a nice winter's sleep, Goph!"
"You too, Hammy!"
