Crooked Paw and the Busy Bee
Crooked Paw the bear was walking through the forest. His tummy was rumbling! He was so hungry. He was looking everywhere for something yummy to eat.
Suddenly, he saw a little bee buzzing towards him. It was Zhuzha!
“Hello, Crooked Paw!” buzzed Zhuzha.
“Hello to you too, little Zhuzha,” said Crooked Paw. “Where are you flying off to?”
“I’m flying to a faraway meadow,” answered Zhuzha. “The sweet, red clover is blooming there!”
Crooked Paw’s ears perked up. “Can I go with you and eat some sweet clover?” he asked.
“Of course! Let’s go!” Zhuzha replied. “The meadow is big and there’s enough clover for everyone!”
Zhuzha zipped ahead, and Crooked Paw lumbered along behind her.
Soon, they reached the meadow. “And wow!” There was SO much clover! It was a sea of red flowers!
Zhuzha started buzzing happily from flower to flower, collecting sweet nectar. That’s the sugary liquid inside the flowers that bees love!
Crooked Paw grabbed a big handful of clover. He chewed and chewed, but then he spat it out. “Yuck!” he grumbled. “Is it even possible to get full on *this*?”
Meanwhile, Zhuzha had filled her tiny buckets with nectar and was getting ready to fly back to her hive.
“Give me one bucket,” begged Crooked Paw. “I want to try it!”
“No, Crooked Paw,” said Zhuzha, using the bear’s nickname. “I can’t give you my nectar. I have to take these buckets to the hive. We will make sweet, yummy honey from it and feed our babies. If I give it to you, then our babies will be hungry!”
“Ah!” Crooked Paw got angry. He stomped his foot. “Then I will come and take *all* the honey from you!” he roared. “Look how big and strong I am! And you are tiny! What can you do to me?”
Zhuzha didn’t say anything. She just buzzed angrily. Then, she zoomed off as fast as she could towards her hive. She knew she had to warn her family about the grumpy bear!
All day long, Zhuzha the bee and her friends buzzed around the meadow. They were busy little bees, collecting yummy nectar from the colorful flowers. They flew back and forth, filling their tiny baskets with the sweet juice. Back at the hive, they turned the nectar into delicious, golden honey! The honeycombs were getting so full, they were practically overflowing!
“But then, oh no!” A big, grumpy bear showed up. His name was Crooked Paw, and he looked very tired, very hungry, and very, very angry.
“Give me back my honey, bees!” Crooked Paw roared. His voice was so loud it made the flowers tremble!
The bees were so surprised! “Your honey?” they buzzed. “Did you fly to the meadow, Crooked Paw? Did you collect nectar from the flowers? Did you make the honey?”
“No, bear,” Zhuzha replied bravely. “We made this honey. So we won’t give it to you!”
“Oh, you won’t, huh?” Crooked Paw bellowed even louder. “Well, then I’ll just take it! I’ll turn over all your hives and smash them to pieces!”
And with that, the grumpy bear lumbered towards the beehives, ready to cause trouble.
That was the last straw! The bees started buzzing angrily. They gathered together in a big, buzzing swarm. And then, they attacked! They flew right at Crooked Paw and started stinging him from all sides!
The bear spun around and around, trying to swat the bees away. He waved his big, clawed paws, but the bees were too quick for him. He couldn’t catch a single one! His nose started to swell up, and his eyes became tiny slits because they were so puffy. He couldn’t even see the hive anymore!
Finally, the bee stings were too much to bear. Crooked Paw couldn’t take it anymore! He turned around and ran away as fast as his clumsy legs could carry him. All you could see was the soles of his paws flashing as he sped away.
But the bees weren’t done yet! They flew right after him and stung him on those very soles! “Ouch!”
When Crooked Paw was finally gone, the bees flew back home to their hive. They had to feed the little baby bees some sweet honey, sing them a sleepy lullaby, and tuck them into their tiny bee cribs.
And as for Crooked Paw? He got exactly what he deserved! He learned a valuable lesson: “Don’t try to steal what isn’t yours!” From that day on, he knew better than to mess with Zhuzha and her friends.
Sparrow and the Little Seed
Once upon a time, there was a tiny sparrow. He loved to hop around in the fields after the farmers had gathered all the wheat. One day, he saw something small and brown on the ground.
“Oh! A grain!” chirped the sparrow. He was about to gobble it up when…
“Wait!” squeaked a tiny voice.
The sparrow stopped. The grain was talking! “Please don’t eat me! Plant me instead.”
The sparrow scratched his head. “Plant you? But I’m hungry! One little grain won’t fill me up.”
The little grain pleaded, “Just put me back in the ground, please!”
The sparrow thought about it. He knew one grain wasn’t much. So, he carefully pushed the grain back into the soil with his beak.
Winter came, and it was cold and snowy. The sparrow was hungry. He remembered the little grain he’d buried.
“I wonder how that little grain is doing?” he thought.
He flew to the field and landed near where he’d planted it. “Little grain, are you cold?” he called out.
A tiny voice whispered from under the ground, “Oh, sparrow, it’s very cold! But if you could cover me with snow, it would be like a warm blanket.”
The sparrow flapped his wings and pushed snow over the spot. “There you go! A nice, warm blanket of snow! Don’t freeze, little grain!”
When spring arrived, the sun began to warm the earth. The sparrow flew back to the field. He was so curious! What happened to the grain?
He looked and looked…and then he saw it! A little green sprout was poking out of the ground.
“Who are you?” asked the sparrow.
“I’m the little grain!” chirped the sprout. “I slept under the snow all winter, and now the sun has woken me up!”
The sparrow visited the sprout every day. He watched it grow taller and stronger.
Then, summer came, and a golden ear of wheat appeared at the top of the sprout. The ear grew bigger and bigger, filled with lots of tiny grains.
As summer ended, the sparrow flew in and saw something amazing! Many little grains had fallen from the ear onto the ground.
“These are my children,” said the ear of wheat. “Plant them too, and see what happens!”
The sparrow was so excited! He carefully buried the new grains in the ground!
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