By Toni Babcock

A skunk

Leah and Lexy loved the smell of anything stinky. Why those silly skunks seemed to think everything stinky in the whole wide world smelled just great!

One morning, they woke up to the smell of Skinny Swamp and Ollie Olson's smelly chicken farm a mile down the road. "Ahhhhh," said Leah. "I love the smell of swamp water and dirty chicken coops in the morning." "Me too!" said Lexy.

"You two need to quit thinking with your noses," said their big sister Lu-Lu. "Don't be stinkers, be thinkers!! You won't get far making new friends in the forest if you insist everything stinky smells good. And don't think those fluffy black and white tails are going to impress anybody!"

But the two little stinkers wouldn't listen. In fact they were so proud of their fluffy black and white tails, they raised them as high as they could whenever they walked through the forest, and all they ever thought to talk about was stink bugs, and rotten eggs and Ollie Olson's smelly chicken farm a mile down the road, and anything else smelly they could! They were not about to change their ways in order to make new friends. And to make matters worse, they discovered they could stink up the whole forest and we all know how! With their very own built in skunk perfume! eeewwww!!!! So what did they do? Why those two little stinkers sprayed Riley Racoon's favorite ash tree, and Myrtle the Turtle's favorite lagoon, and Willie Woodchuck's very own hideaway! They actually considered it their awesome and odiferous gift to the forest!

"Everyone is going to love this!" said Leah and Lexy. "Who wouldn't be in love with such a wonderful and odiferous smell!!? We are going to make a ton of new friends," they exclaimed. Leah and Lexy were so proud of their gift to the forest, they waved their fluffy black and white tails as high as they possibly could, and pranced all the way home to tell big sister Lu-Lu.

"We'll show her we know a thing or two about how to make new friends!" they bragged.

But strange things happened as they walked home through the forest. Soon they met with Myrtle the Turtle.
"Go home you two, and stay away! You have ruined my lagoon with your stinky spray!!"
"But we thought you would love it," Leah and Lexy said, surprised.

But Myrtle the Turtle did NOT love it! She pulled her head into her shell and grumbled, "What were you thinking? I don't love it, I HATE it!" Then she crawled back into her lagoon and dived under water all the way to the muddy bottom to escape the awful smell.

"Oh, she's always been a grump," said Leah. "And snappy too," added Lexy, "C'mon, let's go."

Soon after, the two little stinkers saw Porky Porcupine hobbling along a path in the forest. When he spotted Leah and Lexy with their big fluffy tails high in the air, he ran up a nearby tree and ruffed up his sharp porcupine quills.

"Go away, go away!! You're ruining the forest with your stinky spray!" he hollered down from the tree top.

"Oh honestly," Leah complained, "He's just being jealous."

"You're so right," said Lexy.

"Porky!" Leah hollered back, "You just wish you smelled as wonderful as we do!"

Porky peered down at them from a tree branch high above, and shook his head. They just don't get it, he thought.

Next the two little stinkers passed by Riley Racoon's ash tree.

"Hey!! You two!" Riley hollered down from the tree.
Leah and Lexy looked up.

"Yeah, you with the fluffy tails! If I catch you two coming around here stinking up my tree again, you're gonna get it!"

"Sorry!" Leah and Lexy replied. They knew Riley could be a mean rascal when he got mad, so they took off in a hurry.

"What's his problem?" complained Leah as they scampered away. "Oh, anything riles up Riley," said Lexy. "He's probably crabby because he stayed up too late last night raiding bird feeders."

"Yeah," agreed Leah, "What a grouch."

Further on down the path, Leah saw Greta Goose swimming in a pond nearby.

"Hello Greta!" Leah called out. "Wonderful scent in the forest today, wouldn't you say?"

Greta rose out of the water in a feathered fray, honking "I'm outta here - far, far away! Far from you stinkers and your stinky spray!" And off she flew, making so much noise that Leah and Lexy didn't hear exactly what she said.

"We must have frightened her off," said Lexy. "Yeah, what's up with that?" asked Leah.

Further on, Leah and Lexy met with Willie Woodchuck waddling down the path. He stopped and addressed them in a grandfatherly way.

"My dear little Leah and Lexy, it's time you two take a good hard look at what you are doing. The news is in the forest, that you two are raising quite a stink. Now if I were you, I would scamper home as fast as I could, and lay low for awhile until the air clears."

Then he turned on his heels and waddled back into his favorite hideaway to wait out the awful stink. At long last, Leah and Lexy were beginning to smell a problem.

"Lexy, do you think the reason we can't make friends is dare I say it US?" Leah asked. "It seems like everyone in the forest thinks our wonderful odiferous built in skunk perfume smells just awful!"

"Yeah, maybe we should have listened to what Lu-Lu was trying to tell us."

Leah and Lexy lowered their beautiful fluffy tails and stopped prancing about so proudly. They walked quietly home all the rest of the way. They didn't even stop to talk about stink bugs, or rotten eggs, or Ollie Olson's smelly chicken farm or anything else smelly.

Lu-Lu was waiting for them. She wore a wise little smile on her face. "Hmmmm" she began to say, holding back a little chuckle with her paw, "What have you two little stinkers been up to lately?"

Leah and Lexy began to cry. "Nobody likes us! They all think we smell awful! We tried to make new friends, but it just didn't work. Lu-Lu, now what should we do??"

"Do what I told you to do; don't be stinkers, be thinkers!"

"But we were thinking!" Leah and Lexy whined. "We were thinking everyone would love our beautiful black and white fluffy tails, and our wonderful odiferous built in skunk perfume, but they HATED it!"

"Here is the problem," said Lu-Lu. "You weren't thinking about them and what their gifts were to the forest, you were only thinking about yourselves! You didn't even ask if they liked your wonderful odiferous built in skunk perfume! Now the next time you meet your fellow creatures, keep your tail down, talk about what is most interesting to them, and think of something you can compliment them about and for goodness sake, don't spray anything!"

"You mean like, 'Hi Myrtle! You swim so gracefully underwater, how do you hold your breath for so long? That is amazing!" or, 'Hi Riley, you look awesome with that cool mask on, where did you get it?" Leah asked.

"Yes, something like that!" replied Lu-Lu. "But can't we ever use our wonderful odiferous built in skunk perfume?" asked Lexy, a little befuddled.

"Only when you are in danger and need to protect yourself from a creature that might harm you," said Lu-Lu. "Believe me, nobody in the forest wants to be sprayed with your smelly skunk perfume! They will always run the other way!"

The two little stinkers did exactly what big sister Lu-Lu told them to do. They kept their tails down whenever they were trying to make new friends, and didn't spray when they weren't supposed to, and talked about good smelling things like Jack Rabbit's sweet clover field, or Honey Bee's wild raspberry patch, or the pines in the forest that made everything smell wonderful. In fact, they got so busy being thinkers instead of stinkers they forgot all about stink bugs and rotten eggs and Ollie Olson's smelly chicken farm!

Along with that, they always thought of kind things to say, and looked for all the wonderful gifts that others had to share, and gave compliments even when no one had anything nice to say back. (It would take time for the creatures in the forest to change their mind about those two little stinkers!) Before long, Leah and Lexy had a whole new list of forest friends! They even made friends from another patch of woods, just past Ollie Olson's smelly chicken farm!

"You never know what can happen when you change stinkers into thinkers," Lexy said to Leah. "That's right!" said LuLu, with a smile.

Toni Babcock is a freelance Christian writer from South St. Paul. She enjoys writing short stories for children and young people, as well as memoirs, poetry and spiritual essays.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

Used with permission.

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