How Summer Lost His Socks (part 6)

And that's just exactly what Summer did, he sleep-walked right down to his canoe. Everyone followed and as they went, they shouted and yelled and banged things together. They made all the ruckus they possibly could in case it might wake Summer up. It didn't work of course, Summer stayed fast asleep, but the noise parade was so much fun they kept it going as loud as they could on their way to Summer's canoe. And they sang this song at the top of their lungs as they marched along to the water's edge:

When the parade was done and the song was all through, they loaded Summer into his canoe with the wild clocks and his Magic Tree pole and pushed him away from shore. The White Raccoon sailed away with him too, whispering softly in Summer's ear so he'd know how to go and the best way to steer. And Whooosh! The Windman blew Summer's canoe away, over the water and all the way back to his house.

Fall kept both of Summer's socks as a trick on him for falling asleep. Michael and Megan helped stuff them with leaves, then they took the socks and hung them up high on a branch in the woods where Summer would have to look hard to find them.

"Do you think he'll come back to get his socks?" Megan asked.

"Oh he will," Fall told her. "He needs to wear his sleeping socks in order to stay asleep. When he wakes up he'll come back here to find them. He keeps all his dreams in his socks, you know."

Then Fall gave a twirl of his twisty stick, and he walked away off through the woods to see how things had changed since he'd been in town the year before. And Michael and Megan marched all the way home, singing their song and laughing together about the trick they'd just played on Summer.

Sure enough a few weeks later, Summer came back into town again to look for his sleeping socks. And when he arrived the weather got warmer and the sun shone hot and bright. It stayed like that for a good bit of time until Fall called the Windman and Whoooosh! The Windman came to blow Summer back to his house again. When Summer was gone the weather turned colder and Michael and Megan and Fall all knew that Summer had come and gone for sure because when they went into the woods and looked, the socks had disappeared.

This story is the fourth in a collection of seven stories and nine songs with numerous black and white pen and ink illustrations throughout. After Michael and Megan meet the Seasons, they have many adventures with Fall in particular as he steals Summer's socks, makes a chestnut pie for his friend the White Squirrel, and plays a Halloween trick on Winter. Many of the stories can be acted out and continued by the reader in their everyday life. Although this book is set in Toronto, it can be adapted to fit any North American urban centre.