Morning surprise in the strawberry bed this am.

Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise lived on the banks of the Amazon river. Painted Jaguar also lived there. He was told by his Mother how to catch hedgehogs and tortoises so that he could eat them, by dropping the Hedgehog into water and scooping the Tortoise out of his shell. He found them, and the Hedgehog curled up while the Tortoise hid in his shell. Painted Jaguar repeated his mother’s advice and asked them which of them was which. They answered by scrambling her words until the Jaguar was thoroughly confused.

He tried to scoop out the Hedgehog and got his paw full of prickles. Then he argued with the Tortoise till he was even more confused, and told the Tortoise to jump into the water, whereupon the Tortoise swam away. He turned his mother’s instructions into a rhyme to help him remember. The Hedgehog and the Tortoise overheard, and decided to share their skills, the Tortoise learning to curl up and the Hedgehog to swim.

In the process, both were changed, so that the Hedgehog’s prickles became armour and the Tortoise’s shell grew flexible. They sought out Painted Jaguar and rolled around him till he was dizzy. He complained to his mother, who told him to call the new animal “Armadillo” and to leave it alone. So he did.