FURRY TALES AND TURTLE SHELLS

THE THREE BEARS AND THE PORRIDGE

by

Leeuna Foster

There once was a house, standing deep in the woods; in this house lived a family of bears. There was Mama and Papa and Baby, and a girl with bright yellow hair.

One day the three bears had worked several hours gathering their honey for storage; Then they all took a break so Mama could make a pot of thier favorite porridge.

But when they sat down with their bowls all around , they found the porridge was too hot. So they went for a stroll while the porridge grew cold, but the yellow haired girl they forgot.

The wee little girl with the bright yellow curls was just waking up from her nap. The food smelled divine, so she sat down to dine with a napkin over her lap.

Then she ate it all up, draining every cup, whilst sitting in Baby Bear's chair. The chair then did splinter like ice in the winter giving the poor child such a scare, that she ran far away to the deep woods to stay, frightened of what might transpire when the three bears came home and found their soup gone and saw Baby Bear's poor broken chair.

When the bears returned for their dinner and saw that the wee girl was gone, they forgot about food and ran into the woods to find her and bring her back home.

"It was only a chair," said Baby Bear "and Papa will make it like new."

"Why surely," said papa "I might make a rocker and I'll even make one for you too."

Mama bear smiled and scooped up the child and brushed back her bright yellow curls. She gave her a hug and said with a shrug, "Let's go home now, my sweet little girl. I can always make more pots of porridge and papa can make many chairs, but nowhere in the world is there another sweet girl like you, with your bright yellow hair."

So the wee little girl with the bright yellow curls and her Mama and Papa and Brother held hands, skipped and sang, as back home they came, and they all ate fresh porridge for supper..