Henry the Hedgehog was known throughout the forest for always telling the truth. He had big, curious eyes and a round little nose that turned red whenever he felt nervous. His friends loved him for his honesty, and started calling him ‘Honest Henry’.
One bright afternoon, Henry was playing with his best friend Lucy the Lizard. Lucy had a favorite toy, a shiny, colorful ball that she loved. They were playing catch with the ball.
“Catch, Henry!” Lucy shouted, throwing the ball high into the air.
Henry jumped to catch it, but his tiny paws missed.
“WHOOPS,” He huffed as the ball rolled away.
“I’ll get it!” Henry said, running after the ball. It rolled right into a thorny bush.
“AAAH!” Henry cried as he reached into the bush to grab the ball. He pulled it out, but, the ball was now covered in scratches and had a big crack in it.
“OH NO,” Henry whispered, as he felt really nervous. “Lucy loves this ball.”
Henry didn’t know what to do.
“Maybe I can lie to Lucy and tell her he didn’t find the ball,” he thought.
But Henry didn’t want to lie.
“Henry, where are you?” Lucy called as she came from behind.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the ball.
“Lucy, I-,” Henry fumbled as he tried to think of lies so Lucy wont get mad.
However, he felt really nervous and ended up telling the truth.
“When I tried to reach for the ball, it got stuck in the thorns,” Henry looked down.
“Thank you for telling me the truth, Henry. It’s okay. We can fix it together.” Lucy appreciated his honesty.
Henry let out a sigh of relief. “Really? You’re not mad?”
Lucy smiled. “No, I’m not mad. Let’s go to my house. I have some glue and tape. We can fix it!”
At Lucy’s house, they gathered their supplies. Henry tried to glue the crack, but he ended up with glue all over his paws.
“UGHHH! Sticky paws!” he groaned.
Lucy gave him a brush. Henry carefully used the brush to apply the glue while. Then they wrapped the ball with colorful tape. It looked a bit silly and made them chuckle.
“Now let’s see if it works,” Lucy said, throwing the ball.
“It worked!” Henry exclaimed as he jumped to catch the ball.
Henry was happy and pleased with himself. He learned that although being honest can be difficult, it always works out in the end.
Henry’s friends loved him much more after that day as he remained honest. They were aware that Henry the Honest Hedgehog would always be trustworthy in telling the truth.
And each time they laughed while playing with the now-striped ball, they would all think back to the day they found friendship and honesty.