“Lester, would you look at that marigold plant?” Nogdorf said as they walked along. “Also, this group of plants, here. Do you notice anything different?”

  Lester studied the plants Nogdorf had pointed out. He looked under and around them and said to Nogdorf, “I really don’t see anything unusual, Nogdorf; am I supposed to?”

  Nogdorf bent down and showed Lester the stalk of one of the plants, close to the ground. Lester, however, was distracted, listening to a dog bark in the distance. “Lester, this is important,” he said sharply. “You must always be vigilantly checking all of the plants or we will have a crisis on our hands. These red stripes going up the stalks are toxins which will kill the plants, if they aren’t stopped. The dark creatures have attacked us in a different way. They are very crafty. They realize if we don’t stop these toxins, we will be unable to heal sick creatures and they will have a field day, attacking our friends.”

  “How will we rid the plants of their toxins, Nogdorf?” Lester asked.

  “With Mystic Hops.” Nogdorf declared.

  “Huh?” said Lester. “Is it a special kind of the hops plant that you make beer out of? How do you apply the mystic hops plant to other plants? Do the hops cause the plants we are healing to get drunk and that is part of their healing?”

  “No, no, Lester, you have got it all wrong,” Nogdorf said laughing. “You will not use the hops plant at all, so there is no chance of the plants getting drunk. That conjures up such a funny picture of plants dancing all around. Lester, what am I going to do with you?”

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  “Lester, the hops come from you. You must practice hopping gracefully, because that is what you will need to cure these plants. I want you to stand on your hind legs and practice today, so that you are ready by tomorrow,” Nogdorf explained.

  Lester obediently stood on his hind legs and tried hopping, but fell on his face. He stood up sputtering and spitting dirt and told Nogdorf that he could hop better on all fours. And would be more graceful that way.

  “I am sorry, Lester, but you must hop on only hind legs to make this work. Be patient because it may take you a while to become graceful enough for this to work,” Nogdorf said.

  “But how will I know when I have become graceful enough for the plants to be healed?” Lester asked.

  Nogdorf said, “When you are graceful enough, you will see small magical bursts appearing which can not only cleanse toxins from plants, but can purify water, as well.”

  Lester, once again, tried hopping on his hind legs, but was unfortunately on a slope and started hopping faster and faster down the small slope and ended up in a tangled mess in a cluster of blackberry bushes. Not discouraged in the least and determined to see those magical bursts, Lester hopped back up and looked for a level place to practice.

  Well, after 2 hours of practising, Lester saw pink, green and orange sparkles after a hop. He yelled for Nogdorf, who had been working on Bonita’s medicine. Nogdorf came running and asked Lester what was wrong.

  “Nothing is wrong, look,” Lester said and with another hop, produced yellow, white and purple sparkles. “How was that?

  “Can you do it again?” Nogdorf asked, excitedly.

  “Sure, watch,” Lester said. You would have thought Lester was a ballerina, with the grace he used in his Mystic Hop.

  “My boy, I think you’ve got it,” Nogdorf shouted. “To conserve time, I will go ahead of you and mark the plants that need healing. You will simply continue as you are, hopping and healing. We only have a couple of hours till dark, but I think we can make some good progress. Let’s get started.