Ouch My Toe!

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Soon, I would publish a collection of kid’s stories. I am presently working on it…should be able to give you the good news shortly. Read this story on how porcupines got their quills and let me know if I will be able to do my bit towards making a child’s life happier.

Have you seen porcupines? These are rodents with a round body and lot of long, needle-like hair with pointed tips on their back. These hair-like structures are known as quills, and are used to hurt other animals. Did you know one porcupine could have as many as 30,000 quills?

Now, the story on how the porcupines got their quills.

Long long ago, the forests were full of singing birds and all kinds of flowers.

There were lilys, jasmine, lotus, carnations, lavenders, wild violets and rose. The flowers would be in full bloom through the year.

All the animals liked to play with the flowers. And Rose was their favorite because he was very friendly with everybody…and never hurt anybody with his thorns.

Everyday in the evening, all the animals will meet and play hide-and-seek among the flowers. But they were very careful not to hurt the flowers. Because, they knew that the plants also had life.

There was one naughty porcupine, who used to come with his friends and play hide-seek among the flowers. In those days, porcupines did not have quills.

This naughty porcupine used to play hide-and-seek with his friends daily. One day, he noticed that the Rose was very friendly with everybody, and everybody liked him. Now, the porcupine was upset, because he wanted to be the most popular person in the forest.

Soon he was jealous of the Rose. He decided that during a game of hide-and-seek he would fall on the Rose plant and destroy it. That way, he could become the most popular person in the forest.

As planned, one day while playing hide-and-seek, the porcupine fell on the rose plant. But as soon as he fell, he shouted for: “help!” and ran out of the forest in pain.

The thorns in the rose plant had saved it. The thorns had entered the porcupine’s skin and would stay there forever. Ever since, all the porcupines were born with thorns on their backs. We call these thorns quills.

Because of these quills, no animal comes near a porcupine. And it is a very lonely animal. On the other hand, Rose is still the most popular flower in the forest.