It was a warm and sunny morning in earl Spring as the seven dwarfs were marching through the forest on their way to work in the diamond mine. They sang heartily as they went along.

"Hi ho! Hi ho!
It's off to work we go!"

Doc, who was their leader at the head of the line, stopped short suddenly and the others all bumped into each other as they all stopped in turn.

"Look!" Doc exclaimed as he pointed upward. "It's our briend the Flue Fird – er – it's our friend the Blue Bird! He seems to have a letter for us today."

They looked up, and, sure enough, there was a bird as blue as a robin's egg flying down towards them and carrying a letter in its beak. It swooped down in a graceful arc and landed momentarily on Doc's shoulder and deposited the letter into his outreaching hand, and then bowed and flew swiftly away again.

"What does it say?" asked Happy very eagerly.

Doc read the letter out loud to them as he was the only one of them who could read at all. "It says," he began and continued,

"Dear cousins, Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, and Dopey,

We hope you are doing well as we are, with the exception of one or two of us maybe. We write to you now as we haven't been together in a very long time. Too long, we decided. And so we have all decided to come to your forest and visit you for this weekend.

Sincerely,

Your cousins, Jumpy, Blabby, Gloomy, Awful, Helpful, Silly, and Bigo-ego".

"Hey! Our cousins are coming to visit us soon!" Doc exclaimed happily.

"Hooray!" exclaimed Happy.

"A family reunion!" said Bashful beaming.

"Just what we need!" said Grumpy with a huff, "Seven more mouths to feed!"

"It will only be for the weekend," Doc said to Grumpy, "and I know you enjoy being with our relatives as much we all do."

"But why does it have to be them?" Grumpy continued. "You know how Jumpy is always jumping up and down all the time. Blabby always talks about everything and nothing at the same time. Gloomy is always so depressed even on better days. Silly is second next to Dopey on intelligence. Bigo-ego is also bragging about himself. And don't even get me started on Awful, why the last time he was here..."

"I know, Grumpy!" Doc cut him off impatiently. "We all know. But hey, none of us are without our faults. And they are what makes us all unique, so we might as well live with them."

"Humph!" Grumpy sniffed huffily.

"I can hardly wait!" said Bashful. "I sure wish Snow White could come and meet them."

"Well, you never know, maybe she will get to meet them," Doc suggested brightly.

The dwarfs then continued on their way to the diamond mine. They then worked heartily and swiftly so as to finish early today so that they could get home with time enough to fix up their cottage for their soon to come guests.

When they got home from work late in the afternoon that day they saw that they had managed to make a fine mess of their little home since Snow White and left with her Prince. Things were out of place all a round them, dirty dishes were piled high in the kitchen, and not too mention the dust and the cobwebs and gathered up all over again.

"Well," Doc said with an air of importance, "I see there is much work to do around here."

"If we could only get it all done in time for tomorrow," Sleepy said with a very tired yawn.

Just then they heard noises of chirping and twittering coming from behind them. They turned around and saw to their joy there was a bunch of birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits standing just behind them. All with very eager looking expressions on their faces.

"Well," said Happy with a hearty chuckle, "it looks like here is the answer to our problem."

"Well, then come on! Let's get to work!" said Doc cheerily.

So then the dwarfs along with their animal friends set about cleaning and fixing up their house. Sleepy and Sneezy began sweeping up the dust from the floor and the stairs, and it wasn't long before Sneezy sneezed a sneeze so might it blew all of the dust out the door. Then Grumpy mopped the floors and washed the windows and made them shine and sparkle. At the same time a few squirrels and little birds dusted within the hard to reach corners and got rid of the cobwebs. And Dopey and Doc piled up the dirty dishes and washed and dried them thoroughly.

When they were quite done their small home was beautiful inside once again. They were also all quite tired and worn out, especially Sleepy, and so they all went upstairs and retired for the night to their beds.

It was very early the next morning when the dwarfs awakened and as they were coming downstairs they heard a loud chorus coming toward their house from up over the hillside. Doc rushed up to the window and looking out he exclaimed, "Our cousins are here! Our cousins are here!"

Then they all rushed outside to greet their relatives. They watched the other seven dwarfs come up the pathway as they sang out,

"Hi ho! Hi ho!
It's off to visit we go!"

Then as soon as they were close enough both sets of seven dwarfs ran towards each other and soon they were colliding with each other in armfuls of hugs and much back patting.

"Hello, Dopey!" said Silly to his closest cousin in his high pitched shrill voice. "You still can't talk?" Dopey shook his head smiling.

Dopey and Silly then embraced and then linked arms and twirled each other around in a very outright comical dance.

Jumpy was jumping up and down all over the place as he went around giving everyone pats on the back and exclaiming, "We're so happy to be here! We're so happy to be here!"

"We sure are, indeed," began Blabby. "We've been apart for so long we missed you all a lot. We finally thought to ourselves that we ought to come here to visit you all and catch up on old times like we used to. And we traveled for days and days on end, we did. We were wondering if whether or not you had received our letter as we knew bluebirds are not exactly homing pigeons, of course. But we wanted to come very much and so we did and now here we are! It is so good to see you all again, did we mention? We hope you have all been doing well as we have ourselves. We were wondering if..."

"Aw, shut up already will ya!" yelled Grumpy in great irritation.

Happy stepped up to Gloomy and patted his shoulder as he asked, "How have you been doing?"

Gloomy sighed deeply with his eyes drooping sadly. "The same as ever," he said gloomily. "It's the same old routine every day. Get up, go to work, come home, eat and then go to bed. Nothing fun ever happens in our lives anymore. But then I can't remember the last time anything exciting ever did happen in my life."

A dwarf who was slightly taller and more rotund in the middle than the others approached Doc and said, "Hello cousin. How are you? Are you still working in the diamond mines like before, and are you also in charge like before?"

"Well, yes," said Doc. Then before he could say more Bigo-Ego gave a huff and squared his shoulders and stuck out his tummy as he said rather loudly,

"Well, I don't see why I couldn't have stayed with you and become the leader in charge and also worked in the diamond mines! I am the tallest one after all."

"But don't you take charge well enough with the others in the coal mines you work in?" inquired Doc.

Well, yes. But I would prefer diamond mines to the dark and dirty coal mines we work in," Bigo-Ego said stoutly. "In fact, if you will allow us to accompany you to the diamond mines today I will be more than happy to show you!"

"Well, we were just about to go there anyway, so," Doc began but then Bigo-Ego cut him off again.

"Good! Then let us be on our way there, shall we?"

He then gathered all fourteen dwarfs up in a straight line and began leading them down to the diamond mines.

"Don't you mind, Biggy," whispered the dwarf who was called Helpful to Doc as he stood behind him. "He just likes to have all the attention he can get."

When they reached the diamond mines they quickly set to work after Bigo-Ego gave them all instructions on where each one of them would dig for diamonds. They then began digging at their own pace.

Jumpy jumped up and down and down and all around as he hammered away at rocks. Gloomy could barely lift his pick and as he chipped away little bits of rock he sighed long and often. Blabby often talked as he worked about how frustrating it must be when they didn't find anything and how exhilarating it must also be when they did. Silly swung his pick to and fro against any rocks he could reach and once he nearly struck someone on the head with it. Helpful dug away at a fast and brisk pace and gathered up quickly the diamonds he found shoved them onto the line for examination.

At the examination line Doc was trying to look at what diamonds he could, but Bigo-Ego was once again interrupting him.

"I am telling you Doc boy," he was saying, "I am a beneficent expert at diamond examination. I can spot a real one from a fake one a mile away or more!"

"But I'm telling you, I know what I'm doing around here," Doc said tiredly. "And please don't call me Doc boy!" he added irritably.

When their work was through at the end of the day they all stashed away the diamonds they had found and lined up to go home again, singing in chorus as they went along.

"Hi ho! Hi ho!

It's home from work we go!"

When they got home very late in the afternoon, Doc set about cooking their dinner, and once again, Bigo-Ego was wanting to take his place.

"I'm telling you, cousin," he said, "I can cook fifteen meals for fifteen dwarfs all at once. I know how better than anyone to..."

"Quiet!" Doc exclaimed in exasperation. "I will cook our meal for tonight, thank you very much!"

Bigo-Ego gave a loud huff as he joined the others at the table

"Maybe you can cook tomorrow night," suggested Helpful, and Bigo-Ego relaxed a bit then.

Then as Doc served them their dinner they began to tell each other all about what had happened while they were apart.

"Just a few months ago," said Happy, "a princess named Snow White came to stay with us."

"Snow White? That sound like a name for a disease," muttered the dwarf who was called Awful.

Doc shot him a glare and then took up the story. "You see, she had run away from her castle because the Queen who was her stepmother was very wicked and wanted to kill her. So we agreed to let her stay with us."

"She taught us many things," said Bashful. "Like how to wash our hands and how to eat soup properly."

Jumpy bounced on the edge of his chair. "Where is this beautiful princess now?" he asked eagerly.

"The Queen came here in disguise and gave her a poisoned apple," Grumpy said solemnly, "and we thought she had died, but then a prince by the name of Charming who she knew found her and gave her love's first kiss and she came back to life. Then," here he sighed softly as he remembered, "Then she rode off into the sunset with him to his castle."

"So you haven't seen her since then?" asked Gloomy.

"Yes, we have in fact," said Doc. "We were invited to her wedding and she has visited once or twice since then."

"She left you?!" exclaimed Awful. "Why she must have been a most ungrateful wench to do such a thing!"

"She was not!" said Bashful very indignantly.

"No," said Doc. "She just wanted to be with her Prince, she had told us before then that she did. And so we respect her wishes."

"But you took her in when she was in need," Awful continued, "and became like a family to her, so she shouldn't have abandoned you like that."

"But she didn't abandon us!" said Happy very upset. "We told you we still get to see her. In fact, I think it's just about time for her annual visit to us."

"Why, that's right!" said Doc. "So it is."

"You'll get to meet her!" said Bashful joyfully.

"I'll look forward to that," said Jumpy bouncing up again.