Archie Artichoke’s garden sits on top of a small hill next to

an apple orchard full of large apple trees. 

The garden has long rows of every kind of vegetable

you can imagine and the hill it sits on is surrounded by giant fields

of clover in every direction.  Standing on the hill you can look

out over the fields and it seems you can see forever. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archie has made friends with everyone on his hill. 

His best friend is Carly Carrot, but his other friends include

Paul Pepper, Larry Lettuce, Simon Squash, Zach Zucchini,

as well as Barbara Broccoli, Cindy Celery, Rhonda Radish and Tommy Tomato.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just outside the garden is a family of weeds and

Archie has made friends with many of them,

especially one named Wally. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down the hill from the garden is a small pond where Fred the Frog lives and surrounding the pond are large weeping willow trees and many, many flowers.  The clover is bordered on one side by a forest of big trees but the clover looks as though it goes on forever in other directions.  

 

This particular garden is a very special place to be sure.  The vegetables here are more likely to start singing a song or start dancing in the garden as they are to just playing in the water sprinklers.  And there’s nothing they love more than hiking through the clover fields and forests, unless it’s sitting around a campfire at night roasting marshmallows.     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the garden, everyone looks up to Archie when it comes to making decisions.  He seems to know many things, which definitely helps when it comes to making good decisions.  He believes the garden itself may help him to be smart since it is such a beautiful place to live and play. But Archie also reads books about all kinds of things and that certainly is the real reason he’s so smart.  But Archie is more than smart; he has a magical power, one might say a “super” power, given to him by a forest gnome some time ago and here is that story –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was several weeks after Archie and his friends had put on “The Big Show” when Archie was hiking through a dense part of the forest bordering the clover fields that surround his garden.  This warm summer day, Archie was alone in the forest when he came upon a curious sight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two men were preparing to cut down a very tall tree near the trail.  The tree was certainly one of the largest trees in the forest with giant branches and, of course, too many leaves to count.

As the men prepared their equipment some of the animals that lived in the tree came down to see what was happening below.  There was a family of squirrels, several families of birds and a large raccoon.  Two deer came under the tree to feed upon its leaves and a chipmunk scurried from a hole in the trunk of the giant tree.  The animals and birds looked very worried but they could do nothing but watch as the men positioned their saws to cut down the beautiful tree. 

Observing this scene, Archie walked over to the men and said “This tree is home to many forest creatures; couldn’t you spare this one tree today?”  “Sorry little artichoke” said one of the men “this tree will bring us a lot of money in town and we need it.  The animals and birds will just have to find another home.”  Archie had to think fast and answered “Well what if I gave you money today; would you spare this tree?”  “How much?” answered one of the men. 

Archie emptied all his pockets and said “I’ve been saving up to buy my friend Carly a birthday present but this is much more important.”  But looking at the amount of money Archie had, the men said “Sorry little artichoke, this tree is worth much more than that once it’s cut down.  You need to get out of the way now because it’s time for us to get to work.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just then the strangest thing happened – the trees surrounding the tallest tree started bending over and began moving their branches toward the men.  Once the branches reached the men, they started tickling them with small, but quick, movements so the men dropped their saws on the ground and began to laugh uncontrollably. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the laughter quickly turned to screams once the men realized they were being tickled by a bunch of forest trees!  The men ran off in a hurry leaving their saws and equipment behind as Archie stood there in shock. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The men had barely run off when a tiny door near the base of the tree opened and a small forest gnome poked his head out and in a soft voice said “Are they gone?” 

“Yes, they are.” replied Archie.

“Whew, that was close” said the forest gnome coming out of his tiny house at the base of the tree.  Archie hadn’t noticed the gnome home before but now he could see it looked very old and weathered and must have been there for many years.  “Did you make the trees frighten those men” asked Archie?  And the gnome replied “Yes, of course, we can’t all lose our homes just so those men can make a little money; that wouldn’t be right, now would it?  But before I was able to use my magic to make the tree branches move you delayed the men from hurting my tree and I’ll be forever grateful.  Without that delay, who knows what damage would have befallen my precious home!  You were willing to spend your own money saved to buy your friend a birthday gift and I will reward you for your kindness. 

From this day forward, whenever you want to move anything, anything at all, you just need to think of it and the object will move.  It’ll move wherever you want, no matter how big or how heavy it may be.  But you must be careful not to hurt others with your new power and only use it to do good.  And there is one additional rule you must follow: you must never tell anyone of your magical power or you’ll lose it immediately.  So you must keep your power a secret from everyone, even your best friend.

Archie couldn’t believe that he was given this “super” power and thanked the forest gnome several times before leaving to continue his hike.