The Bell That Rolled Away

The smallest bell in the Reindeer Ranch had a surprisingly loud voice.

Ting!

It was waiting on a bench for Rowan to fasten it to a new practice harness.

Pep walked past carrying a stack of song sheets.

One sheet fluttered loose.

He reached for it.

His sleeve brushed the bell.

Ting!

The bell bounced off the bench, landed in the doorway, and rolled onto the path.

“Oh,” said Pep.

The path sloped gently downhill.

“Oh, faster.”

Pep put down his papers and followed.

The bell rolled between two snowbanks.

Ting-ting-ting!

It passed the bakery.

Mrs. Claus looked out.

“Something smells good,” Pep called as he hurried by.

“That's usually true here,” she replied.

The bell bumped a little stone, changed direction, and rolled beneath Mabel's mail cart.

Mabel stopped immediately.

Pep crouched beside the wheel.

“I've lost a bell.”

“Is it the one ringing beneath my cart?”

“Yes. Very good ears.”

He reached underneath.

The bell rolled out the other side.

Ting!

Juniper followed it with her eyes.

“It's heading for the square.”

Pep trotted after it.

In the square, Bram was setting out empty baskets for the afternoon gift collection.

The bell rolled toward his boots.

“Stop that bell!” Pep called.

Bram placed a basket in its path.

The bell struck the basket's curved bottom, made a neat little turn, and continued toward the fountain.

Bram stared.

“Talented.”

The fountain was switched off for winter. Its wide stone rim wore a thick cap of snow.

The bell rolled along the outside edge, disappearing for a moment behind a snowdrift.

Pep went left.

Juniper went right.

Mabel stood beside the clear path.

Nobody heard a ting.

“It stopped,” Juniper said.

They looked beneath the nearby bench.

Nothing.

Beside the fountain.

Nothing.

In Bram's basket.

A mitten.

“That isn't it,” said Pep, although he checked whether the mitten rang.

It didn't.

Then Nell came through the square with a lantern needing a new wick.

“What are we looking for?”

“A small runaway bell,” Mabel explained.

Nell crouched near the snowdrift.

There was a tiny round trail in the powder.

She followed it to the fountain's base.

“The snow caught it.”

The bell sat inside a little hollow, wearing a white cap.

Pep picked it up.

Ting.

Everyone cheered quietly, which seemed appropriate for such a small bell.

Back at the Ranch, Rowan dried it with a cloth.

“Where has this been?”

Pep took a breath.

“The bakery, the Mail Station, the square, briefly near a mitten, and somewhere very snowy.”

Rowan fastened it securely to the practice harness.

Moss tried the harness on.

He took one step.

Ting.

Another step.

Ting.

“It sounds cheerful,” he said.

“It has had an exciting morning,” Pep replied.

Later, Pep collected his abandoned song sheets from the bench.

He added a new verse to his rehearsal.

A bell went down the village lane,

And almost didn't come back again—

Bram leaned in through the doorway.

“Does the song mention my excellent basket work?”

Pep considered.

“It mentions a dramatic turn.”

“Close enough.”

Moss trotted gently around a practice cone.

Ting-ting.

Pep looked at the little bell.

“Tomorrow,” he told it, “we are both staying in one place.”

From outside came a gust of wind.

One song sheet lifted into the air.

Pep watched it float through the doorway.

Then he put the rest beneath a heavy mug.

“One of us,” he said, “is staying in one place.”