Under a maple that grew at the edge of the forest, a family of hedgehogs had made their home. The maple didn’t mind such neighbours at all. Mice and wood-boring beetles had been a real nuisance to it, and they were all afraid of hedgehogs.
Mummy Hedgehog bustled about all day, tidying up the burrow. Daddy slept, and at night he went out hunting. Soon the hoglets began poking their curious little noses outside. But it was very frightening, with so much that was unfamiliar all around.
One day Mummy popped out on errands, and the bravest hoglet, Spike, crept out of the burrow. He blinked for a long time in the sunlight and liked being up on the surface more and more. So many enticing smells and so much rustling!
He wasn’t afraid of enemies, for Mummy had taught him to curl into a ball in times of danger and to stand his prickles on end. He found himself some treats and ate them with great pleasure.
He lay down under the maple beside the burrow and began to doze to the whisper of the leaves. One maple leaf told him what it had seen from its great height. Spike sighed quietly, for he could not wander so far from home.
But then Mummy came back and, cross, led the hedgehog home. She worried terribly about her little ones and tried to keep them out of harm’s way.
Before long the hoglets grew up and scattered to different burrows. Only Spike never forgot the maple and always came running to its shade to listen to the rustle of the leaves. He alone knew what they were saying.
Ellie and the Hedgehog
Ellie was walking through the wood,
She tripped and she fell.
And suddenly, on a leaf,
She spotted a hedgehog.
“What a prickly one you are,
Funny, but not unkind.
Let me take you
Home with me, then.”
But the hedgehog got cross
And snorted in reply.
And Ellie heard
A firm “No!”
“I’ve settled here,
And this is my home.
You’d do better to take
A pencil and sketchbook instead.”
Draw a portrait,
Teach the children.
They’ll give them to their mums,
So everyone can admire them
From the heart.
A Forest Incident
One day a magpie brought news to the forest:
“Spring! Spring! Spring has come!”
And the forest woke, hummed and stirred.
All the animals and birds cried out at once:
“Why didn’t we greet the spring?
Didn’t anyone notice its footprints?”
Only the fir stood quietly silent.
It stood on a little mound, guarding with its branch
A snowdrop that had just opened.
Spring’s creation: a little white flower.
