"Mercy me, what a wonderful day for a picnic," Marlin Fox cried when he first poked his nose out of his den early on that summer morning. "I shall prepare the finest picnic basket this forest has ever seen and I shall spend the entire day next to the river! That I shall, that I shall."
    And you know, Marlin Fox did exactly that. He walked with the basket under his arm through the woods enjoying every step until he ended up on the river bank. There he set up his drawing board and began to paint a picture of the scene before him. It was a beautiful view through the over hanging branches along the river.
    Now, unbeknownst to Marlin Fox was a pair of pesky raccoons named Slicer and Dicer who were prowling along the river bank. They were a shifty sorts with a bad case of sticky fingers. And when they saw the picnic basket, Slicer and Dicer couldn't help themselves. While Marlin Fox had his back turned, Slicer quietly slipped away with the picnic basket under his arm.
    "What a wunnerful day for a picnic," Slicer said.
    "Specially if some other lunk makes it for us!" Dicer said. "Heh, heh, heh!"
    The two raccoons ambled down the river bank until they came to their tree. Setting the basket down, Slicer and Dicer climbed the tree and looked through all of their rooms for a rope so they could pull the basket up without spilling a crumb.
    Now, unbeknownst known to the raccoons was a trio of cunning muskrats named June and July and August who were scouting the riverbank when they spied the picnic basket next to Slicer's tree.
    "Hey July, do you see what I see?" asked June.
    "I sure do, June," said July. "A poor picnic basket with nobody to care for it."
    "hat's say we take real good care of it and eat the goodies inside?" asked August.
    "Yeah, yeah, heh, heh!" June said.
    And so the three muskrats carted off the picnic basket just as Slicer let down a rope. July saw what was happening and tied the end of the rope to a huge rock at the base of the tree.
    "Enjoy yer picnic!" July laughed.
    It was not easy for the three muskrats to carry the overstuffed picnic basket. They soon tired of the load and set it down along the riverbank to rest.
    Now, unbeknownst to June, July and August, a family of frogs named Lefty, Righty, Uppy and Downy were sneaking along the river bank looking for anything that wasn't nailed down. These frogs would cheat their own grandmothers, given half a chance. And a lone picnic basket was more than half a chance. The next thing the muskrats saw was their picnic basket hopping from lily pad to lily pad across the river. Of course they couldn't see the frogs underneath and those muskrats were too scared to give chase.
    The frogs jumped and laughed and laughed and jumped and thought how wonderful it was to make off with such a delightful lunch! And they weren't giving it back! No way.
    "This is ours now," Righty said.
    "You bet," Lefty agreed.
    "And we're going to eat it all up," Uppy cried.
    "And eat it all down," Downy exclaimed.
    That made them laugh so hard that the frogs had to jump over to the riverbank to catch their breaths.
    "Aren't we the most clever frogs in town!" Righty said.
    "We're amazing," Lefty agreed.
    "Absolutely!" Uppy cried.
    "Positively!" Downy exclaimed.
    The four frogs could listen to themselves all day long but none of the other animals in the forest could stand them. Including a basketball team of mice named Ted, Ned, Red, Fred and Zed. There were five of them in all.
    And unbeknownst to the frogs, the mice were all shoplifters of the worst sort. While the frogs were laughing their fool heads off, the mice snatched the picnic basket and acted as a team. Ted, Ned, Red, Fred and Zed zigzagged their way away from the frogs who were fast in the water but impossibly slow on the land. About all they could do was to croak angrily at the basketball team of mice.
    "What a free-throw!" cheered Ted.
    "From the base-line!" yelled Ned.
    "Three points for us!" screamed Red.
    Well, you get the idea. There was more food in that picnic basket than the mice could eat in a month. But they could only move the basket providing all five of the mice were underneath it, arms stretched up high and tennis shoes running like crazy. Of course they had no idea where they were going since all they could see was underneath the basket.
    Suddenly they bumped into something. It was something that didn't move. So the mice tried going around it only to find that just as suddenly, their feet were dangling in the air.
    "What's going on?" asked Marlin Fox. He was holding his picnic basket in the air and now the mice were holding on for dear life. "I see someone has tried to pinch my picnic basket."
    About that time, the four frogs caught up to the five mice. They were none too happy about the basketball team and let the mice know it. And the three muskrats showed up, too. They were quite unhappy with the frogs. Next the two raccoons came trotting along carrying a large rock. They wanted to have a few words with the muskrats.
    "Everybody stop it!" Marlin Fox shouted. "This is my picnic basket and . . . well," he said, pausing to think a minute, "you know, I think there is enough food for all of us. Why don't we share it?"
    Such a picnic you have never seen! The animals all enjoyed the food and believe it or not, there was enough left over seconds. Marlin; Slicer and Dicer; June, July and August; and Ted, Ned, Red, Fred and Zed decided to return next week for another wonderful picnic. And you know what? They did!