The Autumn Friend

One chilly November day, when the ground was all covered in Autumn leaves and everything sparkled and glimmered with a coating of frost, leaving his burrow, Rabbit went out to find a friend to play with.
"I know", he said, "I'll go and see Hedgehog. He always knows lots of good games".
But when he went to see Hedgehog, he was even more prickly than usual.
"I can't play now, Rabbit", he said in a spiky mood, "Winters coming. I have to get my burrow ready or else I'll freeze".
"Oh but I really wanted to play", said Rabbit.
"I'm sorry", said Hedgehog, "But can't you see I'm far too busy. You'll have to find someone else to play with".
And so, shrugging his shoulders, Rabbit hopped away to find one of his other friends.
"I'll go and see dormouse", he thought, "He might want to play".
But when he went to look for Dormouse, Dormouse was busy too building a nest.
"I can't play now", said Dormouse, yawning, sleepily, "I have to get my nest ready because Winters coming".
"Oh but thats just what Hedgehog said", grumbled rabbit, "Can't you even play a little bit?".
"No, I'm sorry", said Dormouse, "But I'm far too busy not to mention sleepy to play anything right now. I'm afraid you'll just have to find someone else to play with".
So, sighing sadly, Rabbit hopped away.
"I only have one other friend left", he thought to himself, "And thats Bear. I'll go and see him. I really hope he's not too busy to play aswell".
Then Rabbit went to see his friend Bear who lived in a cave at the edge of the woods.
But, sadly, when he got there he saw that Bear was busy too.
"I'm sorry Rabbit", he said to Rabbit, "But I just can't play with you now. I have to get ready for hibernation. If you wait till Spring I'll play with you then".
"Spring?", said Rabbit, "But thats months away. I can't wait till then".
"I'm sorry", said Bear again, "But its not my fault. Bears have to sleep in the winter. You'll just have to find someone else to play with".
Now Rabbit was very sad because he didn't have any other friends to play with.
"Oh its just not fair", he thought, "If I haven't got anyone to play with I'm going to be miserable all winter".
But then, as he was hopping back towards his Rabbit burrow, suddenly he saw something lying on the ground and looking more closely at it he saw that it was a blackbird all covered in frost and it wasn't moving.
The rabbit put its long rabbit ear to the birds heart and heard a faint heartbeat.
"Poor bird", he said, "Don't worry. I'll keep you warm".
And, lying close to the bird, Rabbit covered it in his soft, warm silvery grey rabbit fur.
Then, after a while, the bird started to recover.
"Oh thank you", it said, "I don't know what I would have done without your fur to keep me warm".
"But I thought you birds always flew south in the winter?", asked the Rabbit.
"Oh no, not Blackbirds", said the blackbird, "We have to struggle all through the winter living off whatever we can find".
Hearing this, the Rabbit started to feel very ashamed.
"Oh what a silly Rabbit I am", he said, "There was me feeling sorry for myself because I had no one to play with when there are people with much worse problems that mine".
But then, the Blackbird had an idea.
"I don't suppose you would like to play with me would you?", he asked.
The Rabbit thought this a great idea so then the Blackbird and the Rabbit played together, they played all kinds of games even new games the Rabbit had never played before; the blackbird taught the rabbit to whistle and the rabbit even used his big rabbit paws to dig up worms for the blackbird to eat for which the blackbird was very grateful.
And after that day the Rabbit never felt sorry for himself not that he had any time to because he was too busy playing with the blackbird, his new best friend.