“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog scurried past the thicket.

Rabbit perked a sleepy ear. “Why all the kerfuffle?”

 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog crunched through the fallen leaves.

Owl peered through the dark. “Who is in a rush?”

 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog scuttled by the hollow log.

Skunk raised an eyebrow. “Why so fast?”

 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog hustled around the hedge.

Badger peeked out of his hole. “Where are you off to?”

 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog stumbled over the rocky path.

Fox shivered in the breeze. “Why aren’t you hibernating yet?”

 

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Hedgehog scampered up the grassy hill.

 

“Look!” said Hedgehog.

Fox, Badger, Skunk, Owl, and Rabbit gazed as the first snowflakes of the season swirled in the glow of the harvest moon.

“Beautiful.”

 

Hedgehog yawned.

“Now I can sleep until Spring.”

Look! Footprints!

Preschool story by S. J. Little

Story entered in the Spring Fling Kidlit Contest 2023: https://sites.google.com/view/springflingwritingcontest  https://ciaraoneal.weebly.com/spring-fling-kidlit-contest/time-to-take-the-leap

Max word count: 150

Story word count: 148

GIF source: https://tenor.com/view/mud-boots-muddy-weather-new-rock-boots-gif-20008573

Joey looked at the ground. Last night’s rain had created mud.

“Look! Footprints!”

Joey examined the footprints. “Four round toes and no claws. What animal could it be?”

He followed the footprints and spied an orange tail twitching behind the flowerpot.

“They’re cat footprints.”

Joey studied the ground again. This time he spotted long skinny footprints.

“Three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward. I wonder who made these?”

He followed the footprints until they disappeared.

“Where did they go?”

A bird chirped from a nearby fencepost.

Joey grinned. “You made those footprints, didn’t you?”

Looking at the ground by his rubber boots, Joey noticed more footprints.

“So small! Four tiny toes.”

He followed the footprints to a large tree trunk. Chattering overhead made him look up.

“A squirrel! What little toes you have.”

Turning back toward his house, Joey spotted bootprints.

He laughed. “I made footprints too!”