A Hudson's Hope Children's Bedtime Story

Mary Lou Beattie

Susan Soderstrom

    Molly the baby moose was crying and bleating for her momma. Where was she? She had told Molly that she would be back in a little while but she didn’t come. Molly was so hungry by this time that she left her hiding spot, searching for her momma. Her cries and bleating noises echoed across the hills and through the spruces. She hoped her momma would hear her. The echo of her calling became fainter as she lost strength to go on.  

    Near by Momma elk was mourning the loss of one of her twins. She was still in labor delivering her second calf when a lurking intruder snatched the newborn calf. She could do nothing to save it. She named her second calf Erika. 

    In early morning Momma went across the field searching for new grass leaving Erika hidden in the tall dead grass well away from the big herd of elk. As she ate her morning meal she thought she could hear crying and bleating near the edge of the forest. There she saw a tiny long legged animal, one very strange looking animal. It was Molly. Momma elk could hardly hear her say “Will you be my new Momma?”

    Momma elk smelled and nuzzled the calf and licked it all over trying to get it to stand. Molly was very weak but after long coaxing she stood, legs wobbling, and had her first drink of milk in two days. She would live.

    Momma elk took Molly back to meet Erika.

    The two little calves smelled each other for a long time and then laid down side by side. A teenage elk came over to investigate but Momma elk chased him away. She was not taking any chances and kept a close eye on the two little calves. Molly loved to cuddle close to Momma elk and Erika.

    Another week passed with Erika the elk and Molly the moose getting taller and stronger. They became friends with three other elk calves.

    “Let’s have a race." Erika said. The five of them flew across the top field, then raced back to the herd with Molly in the lead. Her legs were longer than her friends. Just then a strange teen age elk named Art appeared and it was easy to see that he was a bully. His father was a big big bull elk, the leader of the six mile herd.

    “My father is the boss here and he said he was going to make you go away.” he said to Molly.

    "Well my mother said I could stay here." Molly told him.

    “She is not your mother. Besides my father makes all the rules in this herd.”

    Everything bad happened the next day. At dawn the whole herd seemed to be upset and nervous as if something upsetting was going to happen. What could it be?

    The answer came when at that moment, there was a big big crashing sound near the edge of the field. Branches flew and little trees snapped into pieces as the huge bull Brutus pranced into the middle of his herd. He had been gone for some time and now it was time to look over his herd.  

    The rest of the bulls now had to show their leader that they looked up to him and even the younger ones knew that they had to do what Brutus said. Art the bully was prancing about showing off. He had told his father about the little moose living there and that was one of Brutus’s issues to settle.