Anna meets Mac and Tosh

In the glade of the forest, Anna made her way into the center of the woods, calling out his name twice.

"Mister Rabbit! Oh, Mister Rabbit!"

However, Roger was gone again. There was still no luck for the Norwegian princess to catch the rabbit.

"Oh, dear. I’m sure he came this way,” she said, looking around with her fists on her hips. "Do you suppose he could be hiding somewhere?"

Little did she know that there were two gophers peeking from behind the bushes.

Both had brown fur with tan markings at their muzzles, underbellies, and undersides of their tails, round ears with pink innards, black noses, small tails with thick, tapering points — that resemble that of an otter's tail — white buckteeth, and small, black whiskers. Their names were Mac and Tosh.

"Where could he possibly be hiding?" Anna wondered, as she looked behind a tree. The two gophers moved between the bushes and the tree, yet they were hidden within a shadow. As Anna turned toward an open log, the gophers moved next to the tree and they stood right behind her.

"Not here…," Anna said, before kneeling down to the log’s level. "I wonder..."

As she crawled into the log, the gophers looked at each other and skipped on top of the log in unison, before stopping in front of the other side of the log. Once Anna came out from the log, she stood still for a moment and brushed her coronation gown with her hands.

"I suppose he—" she started to say, before she jolted and gasped in shock when she turned and glanced at the two gophers.

"Why… what peculiar gophers."

Just then, she spotted two blue ribbons with their names embroidered in yellow and read them one at a time: "Mac...And Tosh!"

Anna placed a finger on one gopher's nose, and a low honking sound came out of his mouth, surprising her.

"If you think we're made of wax, you ought to pay to see us, you know." Mac said, and he jabbed his brother with his left elbow. As a result, a high honking noise emitted from Tosh's mouth.

"If you think we've come to life, you ought to say something to us." Tosh added, before jabbing his brother with his right elbow. The same low honk came out of Mac's mouth, and Mac bounced into Tosh, the same high honk emitting from him. The gophers then hopped on the log and made the same honking noises by jabbing one another with their small feet, slim hips, torsos, and backs before landing on the grassy terrain.

"That's logic!" the gophers said in unison, holding their left index fingers up.

"Well," Anna said with a short chuckle, as she gave them a short curtsey. "It's been nice meeting you boys. Goodbye."

Just as she started walking away, however, the gophers darted and stood right in her way.

"You’re beginning backwards." Mac said to her.

"Aye, the first thing to say actually is,” Tosh added, before the gophers broke out in song again and took Anna's hands. They spun her around in a circle, like a game of ring-around-the-Rosie, before they shook her hands rapidly and released her, causing her to fall on the ground.

Mac and Tosh: *How do you do*
*And shake hands*
*Shake hands*
*Shake hands*
*How do you do*
*And shake hands*
*State your name and business*

"That's manners!" the gophers said to her, holding up their opposite index fingers in front of her.

The two front bangs of Anna's hair were covering her face, so Anna flipped them out of the way to give herself a better view.

"Really?" Anna asked them, and she then stood up on her feet. "Well, my name is Anna, and I’m following a white toon rabbit, so—"

As she turned to leave, the gophers suddenly appeared in front of her again, stopping her in her tracks.

"You can't leave yet." Mac said to her, waving his hands in front of her.

"No, the visit has just started." Tosh added.

"I'm very sorry, but—" Anna said as she continued walking, with the gophers still in her way.

"Would you like to play hide and seek?" Mac asked, as multiple clones of the gophers popped up from the trees and a single bush. The clones disappeared, and the gophers then fused themselves into one body, yet their legs and arms were still with each of the two mice.

"Button! Button! Who's got the button?" Mac said.

"No thank you." Anna replied to them politely, only to see the gophers in front of her again in fighting stances.

"If you stay a little longer, we’ll have a battle." Tosh said, and the gophers began bopping one another in a honking, comical fight.

"That’s very kind of you, but I must get going." Anna said, as she gently pushed them out of the way. The gophers then jolted in front of her and stood next to two trees that served as an archway in the woods.

"Why?" they asked her in unison.

"Because I’m following a white toon rabbit." Anna answered them, only to be blocked by them again.

"Why?" the gophers asked her once more.

"Well, I'm curious to know where he's going." Anna replied to them, before finally starting to leave again.

"Ohhh, she's curious." Tosh whispered, as he and Mac had inquisitive expressions on their faces.

"The oysters were curious, too, weren’t they?” Tosh whispered to him, causing Anna to stop and turn around to listen to what the gophers were saying.

"Aye. And you remember what happened to them."

The gophers huddled with one another and started crying before Anna came walking straight back to them.

"Poor things!" they said in sad voices.

"Well, what did happen to the oysters?" Anna asked them. Mac and Tosh began marching towards the log.

"Oh, you wouldn’t be interested in hearing about it." Mac said to her.

"Oh, but I am." Anna replied to them, as she followed them and got in front of them.

"Ohhh, no. You’re in much too much of a hurry." said Tosh.

Anna was still in front of them as she was walking in reverse towards the log, and said, "Well, perhaps I could spare a little time."

"You could?" the gophers said, smiles of delight forming on their faces. "Well!"

With that said, Mac and Tosh placed Anna on the log before making back-flips and landed in front of the bushes and trees.