First, Celeste went to the edge of the creek and took a long, cold bath, rinsing out the dried mud from her fur and whiskers. “Brrr! That was cold, but it feels good to be clean again!” she said, shaking off as much water as she could.

Then she set to work, finding a spot nearby under the protective cover of some thick weeds. She started by collecting dried grasses and weed stalks from the surrounding area, gathering big armfuls from the thick tussocks that were growing in abundance along the creek. She was delighted to find several strands of horse or cow hair, washed along the banks of the creek from some distant pasture upstream.

Emerald green dragonflies and cerulean damselflies darted around her head as she worked. She stopped briefly to nibble on more seeds.

She carefully laid out her supply of dried material across the ground. She selected only the strongest grasses, those without any insect damage or weak stems or other flaws, and set them to one side.

Of the selected grass blades, she chose the two thickest ones and, braiding them tightly around the strands of horsehair, made a very strong length of rope. Then she started weaving a large basket, bigger than any she had made before, using strong blades of grass and weaving them tightly and with extrastrong knots. She took the rope and wove it into the basket, interlacing it over and through as she created a large gondola, big enough to hold a mouse, with a rope handle. Celeste thought of her mother as she worked. Her mother would have been proud.

The moon rose, a pale rose-colored disk that illuminated the jewelweed.

Before morning she had nearly finished. Scouting the sandy shoreline of the creek, she found several tiny white coquina shells with holes in them, and used them to decorate the sides of the basket. As a last touch, she added a red cardinal feather.

Celeste carefully dragged the basket to a little clearing in the weeds. She covered the basket with a sycamore leaf in preparation for Lafayette’s return.