It was good for the hedgehog in his native forest! And he could travel the whole day through forest glades and gullies, climbing farther and farther from home, echoing with the inhabitants of the forest, depending on the season, eating either forest berries, then apples from forest apple trees, or sweet juicy roots that the hedgehog washed in the tributaries of the Yauza or in hidden forest springs, springs. Or russula mushrooms, which were abundant in the rainy months.
And the hedgehog usually returned home at sunset, tired of running through the woods, but happy, having dinner with his friendly family and during dinner he said that he saw something interesting! The hedgehog was telling and who he met new, colorfully describing all this. The relatives were interested in listening to their little traveler, through whom they learned the world around them. All this was so entertaining that every evening the family greeted their storyteller and connoisseur of their native land with delight. And the hedgehog excitedly sniffed his tiny nose and looked forward to the next day!
Once the hedgehog wandered so far from his home that he had to return at dusk.
It was a warm summer evening. There was already twilight in the copse under the dense crowns of trees.
And in these twilight, climbing the hillocks, rolling into holes, stumbling over dry twigs, the Little Mouse hedgehog hurried home.
In the deepening twilight, the bushes and trees acquired outlandish outlines and sometimes very scary in the imagination of a little hedgehog. And owls and eagle owls flying over the trees seemed to the little hedgehog to be monstrous dragons and their cry was the cry of unknown night monsters in the night forest.
Hedgehog Mouse hurriedly ran through the forest, trying not to look around. He used to be so late that the hedgehog mother was already waiting for her restless son on the path to the house, but to be so far from home in the forest on a real dark night, this happened to the little traveler for the first time.
So that it was not so scary to run alone through the dark forest, the Little Mouse hedgehog decided to sing his uncomplicated song …
And from this very thought the Little Mouse really didn't feel so scared and even the trees lost their frightening look, but seemed enveloped in spring color, which made the Little Mouse very happy and gave him vigor in the night forest.