THE HEDGEHOG

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1022, 12 July 1930, Page 29

THE HEDGEHOG

The weather was fine, and the hedgehog- roamed the fields, where all was quiet and peaceful, and the long grass hid him from view. 'T think I will venture out on this lane; it is so peaceful and quiet, no one will see me,” he thought. He had not gone far, however, when he heard the sound of children’s voices. “Oh! They will see me now, for I can onlv move slowly,” he sighed. “Here’s a hedgehog!” said the children, and the hedgehog hid his face and legs at once, looking just like a prickly ball.

One of the children touched it with a stick.

“We will roll it home, and put it under a box till tomorrow, and then we’ll see what it is like.” ■So they rolled the hedgehog over and over, and when they got him home j>ut him under a tin basin with a stone on top, and left him outside. “We shall have some fun tomorrow,” they said.

The hedgehog waited till night fell and the children were safely in bed. Then he set to work. scraping the earth away with his feet. Soon he had made a large hole under the tin, big enough for him to squeeze out. Oh, how glad he was to be free as he went up the lane again! "They will not find me here again, ** ho said.

There is a moral in this story. You should never put a hedgehog under a tin basin.