The next morning, Little Pine woke up all at once in less than a flash. Not even a wisp of a dream lingered in his mind. He felt as if he was filled inside with the whole morning sky.
He quickly ate his breakfast and then, giving his mother a happy kiss on the cheek and wishing her a good day, he ran down the trail to the Elf house. To his amazement, the three elf boys were just lounging around in the yard, telling stories.
“Hello!” he called. “I thought I would have to hunt you down in the woods. Don’t you have a lot to do today? This is it, you know. Tomorrow is Festival Day.” He paused and gulped a little, “Tomorrow! Tomorrow!”
The elf boys laughed. “That’s why we’re home today, Little Pine. We planned to have everything done so we would be free to help YOU! So, friend, come have a mug of birch tea and tell us what we can do.”
They all went inside where the Gingermans and Mrs. Elf were packing a few last baskets of treats. Of course Little Pine had to eat a couple pieces of maple candy and have a winterberry muffin with his tea.
Little Pine was touched that the elves had planned ahead so they could help him. But he was glad, too. He could use six extra arms and legs today. “I’ll tell you what would be great,” he said to the elves. “I have the march and performance schedules here in my bag. I discussed them briefly with everyone yesterday. But I want to make sure everybody understands so they will be at ease and have fun. Let’s look them over together, then you can go talk to the local critters—the birds, the opossums and rabbits and foxes and raccoons, the deer, of course, the squirrels, the beavers, the chipmunks . . . Well, you know them as well as I do. Just ask if they have any questions and then,” Little Pine paused and reached in his pocket. How was he going to do this? If he handed a couple hundred fun bubbles to the elves, would they burst? That wouldn’t be any fun at all. “Oh!” said Little Pine, laughing. “And that’s why they won’t burst! Because it wouldn’t be any fun.” So he handed plenty of fun bubbles to each of the elves and said to them, “In my role as Prince Little Pine, I invite you to pass these out as you talk with everyone.”
“I’m going to talk with the bears and all our other guests—the flower fairy, the dancing colt, all of them,” said Little Pine, smiling.
So the elves set off to talk with the creatures of the woods and give them fun bubbles. And Little Pine went off to talk with guests. It took the whole day. It was almost supper time when and and the elves met together back at the their house. The brothers told him that everyone was ready and excited. And they shared some of the fun bubble stories. Little Pine told them the guests were all ready, too.
They asked him to stay for supper, but he wanted to share his day with his mother, and he wanted to get an early rest. Tomorrow, after all, was IT! It was Festival Day.
He was over half way home when he came upon a pretty little girl bear sitting in the arms of one of his cousins. She was wearing a heart-shaped sign that said, “Free Hugs,” and she had a sweet smile.
“Hello! I’m Little Pine. Welcome to the Festival! I don’t think we’ve met,” he said smiling.
“Thank you, Little Pine. I’m Kimberley Kindbear. We Kindbears specialize in giving hugs to anyone who needs or wants one. Are you in need of a hug?”
Little Pine felt shy when he thought about saying that he would like a hug, indeed. But her voice was so warm and sincere that he knew her offer was made in love. “Now that I think about it,” he said slowly, as if he was deeply thinking, “I really do need a hug.”
“And why is that, Little Pine?” Kimberley asked gently.
“Well, I think it might help me calm down,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I have an unfamiliar feeling in my tummy. I’m happy and excited about tomorrow, of course. But I’ve never been a Marshall before and I hope everything turns out the way I planned. That’s the part that stirs up my tummy.”
And with that, Kimberley climbed onto one of his branches, curled up to his trunk and gave him a soft, warm hug. Then she took one paw and patted his trunk and smiled into his eyes. “Little Pine,” she said quietly, “It’s all going to be beautiful, any way that it unfolds. Any way. Perfect and beautiful.”
And Little Pine felt the comfort and peace in her hugs and knew that she was absolutely right.