Pavol Dobsinsky
The Goat and the Hedgehog
A famous story for children from Pavol Dobšinský’s collection. It is about a goat that scares away many, even strong and fearless animals, but in the end a small brave one finds a way to deal with her.
Far-off in the mountains, where the trees constantly whisper to each other, there exists a lovely meadow. In that meadow are beautiful flowers of all shapes and colours. And there’s also a babbling brook that provides fresh water, not least for the butterflies and ladybirds. In the meadow, all the plants and insects live together in harmony.
One fine day, a ladybird named Annie ventured into that meadow. She had only recently hatched, but Annie was already curious about the world around her. She started exploring the flowers and the babbling brook. Soon she became aware of a pleasant warmth coming from somewhere above. She looked up at the sky and saw a huge glowing ball.
“Who or what are you?” Annie asked. You see, she was still a very young ladybird and didn’t yet know how to greet others properly.
“I am Lady Sun,” replied the ball, as it stroked the ladybird’s delicate wings with its soothing, warm rays.
“You’re not a lady! I am a lady! My name is ladybird! You’re just some stupid yellow sphere in the sky!” the ladybird blurted out, shrieking and stamping her tiny feet angrily.
The sun in the sky gasped. Such a little bug, and yet so impolite! “Miss ladybird, if you are going to speak to me this rudely, I’ll have to show you what I can do in response!” said Lady Sun, firmly. She instantly began to heat up, causing all the flowers to lower their colourful heads and their petals to wither and turn yellow.
Annie was frightened. But even so, she didn’t feel the need to apologise.
So Lady Sun heated-up even more. The grass became like straw and the bugs suddenly found themselves without any food to eat. And then came…