The Snow Fort Windows

Mason patted a scoop of snow onto the roof of his fort. Pat, pat, pat.

The fort was all his. It had thick walls and a tunnel just wide enough to crawl through. Tonight he wanted to sit at the very back with a cookie and watch the sky.

But the sun slid down behind the hill, and the tunnel went dark. It was as dark as the inside of a boot.

"I'm not scared," Mason whispered. "I'm just not going in yet."

He shut his eyes and crawled anyway. Bump! His nose hit the wall. He backed out. He tried humming as he went, but the hum came back sounding like somebody else. He backed out again.

Then the snow began to fall. One flake landed on his nose. Tinkle! Another landed on his mitten. Tinkle, tinkle! Snow always rang like that in his valley, and nobody thought it strange.

Mason listened. The whole dark was full of tiny bells.

Then, from deep inside the tunnel, came a noise.

Snrrrk. Snrrrk.

Mason froze. "Who's in my fort?"

Snrrrk.

Nobody answered. Whoever it was, they were fast asleep, and they were not going to help him.

Mason sat still. He looked up. A few stars peeked through the clouds, small and silver. If the stars could not come into the tunnel, he thought, maybe he could let them in.

He climbed on top of the fort and found a stick. He poked a hole in the roof. Poke! A thin thread of starlight dropped down inside.

"One window," he said. "Just one more window."

Poke. Poke. Soon the roof was full of little holes, and the tunnel floor was spotted with light.

Mason crawled in. At the back, a round, prickly hedgehog was curled up like a pinecone, snoring away. It had only come in to find a warm place to sleep.

Mason sat down beside it and broke his cookie in half. A snowflake drifted through a window and landed on his nose.

Tinkle.

Snrrrk, said the hedgehog.