Ace Goes on a Forage

Every Friday night, Ace goes out to forage. (Forage means to look for stuff)
He looks all over the forest for things he can use in his recipes.
Tonight he started foraging at one of his favorite spots, the trash can in front of Ms. Melly's garage.

Last week he found a bag of flour, a jar of pickles, and some crusts from a loaf of cinnamon bread. He is always surprised about what Ms. Melly throws in the trash can. And Ace loves thinking up new ways to use the stuff he finds.

Sometimes he finds other things besides food. Tonight was one of those nights.
He pushed the heavy lid of the big trash can with his head and dropped into the darkness.
As he turned on his lantern to see better, something very colorful caught his attention.

He moved a pizza box to get a closer look.
This thing had lots of colors in it!
It looked like a sock, but it had spaces for each toe.
"It looks like a foot glove!" He shouted.
 

Ace sat down on the edge of a box and tugged the colorful sock onto his foot.
"It's a perfect fit!" He said.
"Oh wow! I have always wanted a pair of socks."
"I wonder if there is a matching one somewhere."

He pawed around bags and boxes.
He found;
-A broken blue crayon
-An empty egg carton
"Ooh!! A box of Cheesey crackers!” He exclaimed. “Score!!"  

But he could not find the other sock.
"Bummer!" He mumbled. "The foot with the sock on it is sooooooo  warm."
 
Just as he was about to give up, he stood back and looked toward the pizza box.
There was something with yellow and green stripes sticking out from the corner.
“Yes!” He yelled as he moved the box. “The other sock!”
He hopped around, tugging the sock on until the matched pair was all snug on his feet.

"Best foraging night ever!" He squealed.
With that, Ace scrambled back out of the trash can with the box of crackers in hand, and skipped across the yard to the birdfeeder.

Ace jumped up on the pole and started climbing as usual.
But this time, halfway up……
he slid right back down.
"That's strange", he thought.
The second time he climbed up fast, and slid down even faster, crashing down on his tail.

"Ouch"!

He looked down at his feet.
"Oh no, these socks must be slippery."
"Maybe I can tie them together and use them like a scarf while I gather seeds."
He slipped the socks off his feet and tied them into a nifty scarf around his neck.

This time, he climbed up the pole quickly and filled his bag with sunflower seeds.
"These will be perfect for my cookies," He said happily.
Returning to the ground, he sat on a tree stump and put his snazzy new socks right back on. 

The next stop on Ace's forage was Ms. Melly's garden.

He walked through rows of purple eggplants,  red tomatoes, and green peppers.
"Those look tasty," he thought, but I wanted to make carrot cookies this week."
 "So I think I will just grab a few carrots tonight."

Ms. Melly had told him that he could use some plants from the garden for his recipes. But he had promised not to take everything or leave a mess.
So, Ace dug very carefully and put the dirt back over the holes where he had worked.

While putting the carrots into his bag, he looked down at the socks and frowned. 
"Oh no!" he cried. "The color is gone from my new socks!"  There was dirt all over them. He grabbed his bag and ran back to the pond.

"I need to wash these," he thought.

He dunked the socks, and scrubbed, and dunked, and scrubbed, and dunked, and scrubbed again. Squeezing the water out, he held them up to see all the colors

As the sun began to rise over the hill, Ace hung his new socks on a tree limb to dry.
It had been a long night of foraging, and it was time to rest. Sitting beneath the tree Ace began daydreaming about rainbows, toasty toes, and a new recipe for carrot cookies.