For those of you who were hanging in suspense as to what happened to sweet little Angelica, I give you the remainder of the story. (Since Leslie never finished, you'll still hang in suspense, but at least you'll have a bit more information.)
Spring was coming, and the whole forest was alive with the sound of water running, and breezes through the trees. Angelica had to change to her summer dresses and put her winter clothing away. After she tried on the dresses, Angelica knew that no one was going to wear them but the wind and the musk. She took out her skirt of leaves, and tried it on for size. It fit wonderfully around her waist, but finding a shirt would be a problem. Perhaps one of her dresses could serve as a blouse.
The deer, who had so kindly helped her through the winter, started staying around the thicket less and less. They ran through the trees, or sat in a patch of sunlight, nibbling greens.
One day, while roaming through the woods, Angelica spotted a dead deer, lying near the forest edge. Although very sorry for the poor creature, she decided to make use of it. She took out her father's hunting knife and slowly, disgustedly, she skinned the animal. After letting it dry for a few weeks, Angelica took the hide and stretched it out. Her father was a skilled hunter, and had begun to teach her how before the accident. She took the pieces she had cut before, and tried to sew them together. Unsuccessful, she tried again with a sharper needle. She had it sewn, but the thin thread that held it together didn't hold. Angelica was very frustrated, but she tried a leather shoestring from one of her shoes. After finding a large sharp needle, she managed to fit together a dress. This dress was quite large, so she could grow into it later. It was also quite heavy, but she would manage.
Angelica had long since lost track of the time, but she knew it was around July when someone came to the forest. She was sitting with one of the deer, when she heard a shot ring out. There were hunters in the forest. The best she could, she rounded up the deer into their thicket and held her Sylvia close until the hunters had left. She heard a vague dog bark, then all signs and sounds of hunters was gone. Angelica tried to find her puppy, but her little dog was gone forever, she knew.
Sometime in late August, there was a strange sort of silence about the forest. The deer lay hidden in the thicket, and no birds sang. Once in a while, Angelica saw a brief movement in the bushes. Angelica felt like hugging the ground herself, for the heat was unbearable. Finally, she found a tree shady enough to keep her cool. It amazed little Angelica that it could get hot enough down on the forest floor.
The night brought much comfort. Angelica could feel the relief the forest held. She felt drowsy, and as soon as she could, went to the thicket and curled up with her deer.
**********
Autumn came, bringing hunters by the dozen. Angelica did her best to stay hidden. As soon as winter came on, about a third of the hunters had left, but a third of the deer were gone, too. Angelica could not help but grieve her friends' death, even though she knew it was a sport and provided food for the winter.
When it felt like Christmas time, and she could hear sleigh rides, Angelica wanted to join the parties. She remembered one time, when her parents had taken her to see the city in all its splendor. She had gasped with delight, not knowing what to say. She remembered sampling the sweet candies, and tasting the steaming wassail. If only she could find something to wear! The deerskin dress was not in the least nice enough even to leave the forest in, she knew. Her hair was impossible to brush out and she had absolutely no shoes suitable for anything but tramping in the forest.
It was a few days later when she heard some footsteps and voices coming her way. Angelica grew curious and crept noiselessly toward the sound. It had been a year since she had been to her house since it had burned down, so she was surprised when she saw two girls and two boys, all of them about twelve years old.
“This is the place that burned down, Maggie,” a brawny boy was saying to a girl. “This is where the Runyon’s used to live before the parents died in that accident over there. No one’s seen the girl since the morning after that accident, when the police came and asked her lots of stuff.”
“Oh, Harry, that’s so sad. Do you think that girl, what did you say her name was? Oh, Angelica, might still be around somewhere?”
Of course not, you ninny,” this was the other girl. “If she had, what would she have done, run off to the forest? Not likely.”
Angelica was just bursting to come out of hiding and tell that girl what she thought. Running off to the forest is exactly what anyone with any sense would have done if the house burned down.
The other boy, a short, squat boy with spectacles commented, “Can we have our dinner now? The hot chocolate is probably freezing by now.”
“Come now, Bill. If it has gone cold, we’ll just build a fire. Isn’t that right, Harry, Agatha?”
The foursome set out building a fire and setting out a regular Christmas dinner, with all the turkey, trimmings, and even hot chocolate. Angelica could hardly bear it; her storage food had been gone ages ago, except for two jars she was using until the end of winter. She was overjoyed when Maggie decided to leave two cups worth of hot chocolate in the saucepan over the fire.
“This is just in case someone, perhaps even that dear Angelica, or maybe a deer, needs some food and warmth.”
Angelica could have run up and hugged Maggie, she was so grateful. She waited until she was sure the children were gone then ran to where the chocolate waited. The taste of warm food delighted Angelica, so she savored every sip. Then she warmed by the fire and fell asleep still holding the saucepan.
**********
The next few days Angelica spent dreaming of the hot chocolate and coming to the remains of her house to stroke the now cold saucepan tenderly. Since she was so little, she had no idea of what was going on in the world, nor did she care. All she cared about was if her deer friends were all right and if she would ever get any more hot chocolate. She soon found that she was wondering in vain. Winter was going to end soon.
Proof of this presently came when Angelica found five little fawns at the thicket that week. Although the snow was not yet gone, she could find little patches of wildflowers here and there, reaching for the sun. Angelica breathed in the rich scent of earth coming alive, then went back to the ashes near her old house and stroked the saucepan.
Angelica was a big girl now; six and three-quarters. She knew she was being silly and told herself so.
“Angelica, dearest,” she said like her mother used to–how long ago had it been?–“you cannot keep sitting here like a frog that missed a fly.” That simile had come from her father. “If you’re going to do anything useful, you could clean the saucepan for Maggie. I’m sure she’d be happy to see how well you’ve taken care of it.”
Besides cleaning the pan, Angelica had many other things to do. She had to help babysit the new fawns as well as gathering edible greens with the older deer. The oldest doe of the herd had died a few days before, and Angelica had to help with the burial service; after skinning the poor deer, of course. She hopped right up and made herself useful.
**********
There. A deerskin dress had never looked prettier. At least, it better not have, because Angelica had spent hours making it white as the snow on the ground and soft as her baby blanket. Her old doll, Sylvia, looked on with approval.
“What do you think, Spot?” Angelica asked her favorite young buck. “Good enough to venture out in?”
The yearling nuzzled her open hand and nodded without knowing what it was nodding for. The girl with yellow fur had taught him how and when to use his expressions.
Angelica stood up and prepared to dress. As she slipped the warm skirt on, she thought about the first time she had made a deerskin dress. It had been far too big on her and had hung like she was wearing a sack. Six years worth of practice had made her better; now she knew how to cut the hide into thin strips to use for thread instead of shoestring and fit the gown to her developing figure.
The twelve-year-old silently cursed as she tried to detangle her hair with her old comb she had brought from the house. Even her endeavors to brush it out every day had not kept it from snarling around bushes and pine needles. Oh, well. This was what came of living in the forest.
Wishing she had a mirror, Angelica turned to see her skirt swirl around her wonderfully. If only she knew the style these days, she could make it. Mother had been an accomplished seamstress; of course her daughter would be able to follow in her footsteps.
“What I need,” Angelica muttered to herself, “is an excuse to even go to town. In all these years, I’ve never been past my house; or what’s left of my house. I suppose I’ll just follow the road, like normal people. Though heaven knows I’m nothing like normal people.”
Angelica silently crept on her moccasins toward where she knew there was a road. Her heart was palpitating heavily, and her mind kept trying to talk her out of it.
“No,” she said firmly. “I have to know.” What exactly she had to know, Angelica had to find out. She hurriedly changed her response to, “I have to go.” She laughed bitterly.
“What was that?” she heard abruptly. Simultaneously, she heard jingle bells, as if pulling a sleigh. Was it really Christmas Eve? Angelica pulled back into the shadows.
“Whatever is wrong, Maggie?” Angelica heard someone say. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Didn’t you hear a laugh?” said a familiar voice. “Someone laughed, I’m sure.”
Angelica caught her breath. Was it truly the Maggie? The fabled Maggie of the hot chocolate pan? This couldn’t be real. But Angelica knew that it was real, and she was going to make the most of it. She wasn’t shy like in days of being six. She was bold and fearless, and would jump in front of the sleigh to grab their attention. Angelica thought all this as she shrunk back toward the thicket.
“Stupid girl!” she said. “You aren’t ever going to get out if you go by those tactics. At least go where they’re going.”
As she ran toward her house, she distinctly heard, “Now tell me you didn’t hear someone saying something.”\
Angelica reached the edge of the woods near her late home and leaned against a tree, struggling to catch her breath before they came. It would be unsightly for her to appear out of breath when she revealed herself.
“You’re hearing things, Maggie,” she heard Agatha say primly. “Everyone knows that I have among the best hearing in this whole group and I didn’t hear a thing.”
Angelica could almost see Maggie face flush angrily. “Of course you have the best hearing, Agatha, but how well do you listen?”
“I declare!” was the only remark as the sleigh pulled into view.
If only Angelica knew how to write! She could have written a nice message in the snow as she waited, but all she did was stand, forlornly wishing she had gotten further than E in the alphabet.
The Christmas feast was spread out once more, with everything from the turkey to the hot chocolate. Maggie’s pan had been returned gratefully, clean as a new whistle, next to the town crossroads. And there it was right by the fire, heating its contents.
“Would you look at that!” Harry exclaimed. “Human tracks!”
“I told you! I told you that little girl was still alive! Do you believe me now?”
Bill examined the footsteps in the snow carefully, then said, “How old would this little girl be now?”
“Oh, around twelve, I’d say,” Harry replied.
“That about fits,” said Bill. “Unless she has extremely large feet, these are typical twelve-year-old-size feet.”
‘So there!” Maggie said triumphantly. “What do you say to that, Agatha?”
“Nothing,” was the reply. “If she really is real, why doesn’t she just show herself now?”
“Why, I ought to!” Angelica muttered. “In fact, I think I will!”
With that, Angelica rushed closer to where the little group was standing. No one was paying attention as she scuttled around toward the fire. When she got to the remains of her house, she began to be a little anxious, because she had always been shy.
“I won’t run away,” she told herself firmly. Of course, the group around the fire heard.
“Why, look at that! A snowlady!”
“I told you! I told you!”
“Her dress could be the height of fashion, you know. Pity she lives in the forest.”
“Fits the footprints exactly. I had my suspicions, I tell you.”
All this exclamation was starting to frighten Angelica, so she started to run back to the deer thicket. She was stopped before she got past the fire.
“Let me go!” she screamed, scared out of her wits by the nearness of Harry and Bill. “I’ve done no harm!”
The boys fell back, and Maggie said kindly, “Harm, child? How could you do harm when there’s nothing to do harm to? We just care about you, and don’t want to see you freezing in that forest. Why don’t you come home with us?”
“I can’t. No,” Angelica said as she raced back to the forest, nobody even trying to stop her.
“What a beautiful legend that would make,” Agatha said with a sigh.
“There’s an idea,” Bill said musingly. “Make her a legend, and the world will know of her yet leave her alone. Isn’t that what she wants?”
Maggie looked at him. “Do you think that’s what she wants, to be known? Make her a legend if you must, but
