Story time:

A stitch in time...

Let's imagine that all the animals in the jungle live in peace and harmony. They play together, sing songs together, share their food, help each other, learn new lessons and so forth exactly like the kids in the play group.

Teddy, the baby bear, was one of these animals. He had five friends Rabby, Platy, Leny, Pipi and Mexy. Rabby was a little hare and the most innocent in the team; Platy was a baby platypus who would do funny things to make the others laugh.

Leny, the lion cub was the leader of the team, though a little shy; Pipi was a parrot with a red necklace, the chatterbox of the group; Maxy was a little monkey, whose job is to run around in search of bananas all the time. The six friends practically did everything together; they sang songs, went to school, ate, swam and played together. They never fought with each other, none of them saw a drop of tears in the others' eyes.

One day, the six friends met in the playground. Pipi switched on her chatterbox, "Ah... what game are we playing today? Are we playing 'Batta' or Hide and Seek?" Leny jumped in and said, "No, let's run a race today". "Oh yes, that's fine!", everybody accepted the suggestion at once. Platy conducted the race as he is not a good runner.

He drew a line and commanded, "On your mark, get set, go..." Everybody ran as fast as possible. Unfortunately, Teddy could take only ten hops before getting entangled with a creeper, He fell on all fours.

Crying out, "Oh, Teddy fell down", all the friends ran to Teddy and helped him to stand up. His hand was injured a little; the other friends said "Teddy, go home and put some medicine on the wound. Your coat is also torn, don't forget to ask your mother to put a stitch on it".

But Teddy didn't care much about their advice and said, "Ah, I am OK, I am not hurt. This injury will disappear tomorrow. Who cares about these minor injuries? Let's go and play again. My coat is also not torn that wide."

After coming home, Teddy took a shower without covering the wound and exposed it to the water. He didn't tell his mother what happened, nor did he apply any medicine on the wound. After a few days, the wound became very painful and Teddy couldn't help complaining about it to his mother. His mother was shocked to see the state of the wound.

It was red and badly swollen. Mother got ready to take Teddy to the doctor. Teddy was scared and kept asking his mother, "Amma, will the doctor cut my hand?" He then began to cry.

Teddy and his mother went to see their family doctor who was an elephant, well known in the jungle as a very kind doctor. The doctor examined Teddy's hand and said, "Why didn't you come to me as soon as you were injured? Some germs have entered your wound through the dust and dirt in the soil. I shall clean up the wound and apply some medicine, but cleaning up will be a bit painful. You will have to use a sling on your hand till it gets better. Remember, no games for about a month."

Teddy came home with his mother, he was very sad because he won't be able to play for one month. Teddy showed his coat to his mother and asked her to patch it up. The mother quickly did so and told Teddy that she had to put nine stitches on his coat.

Teddy said that he didn't care to tell his mother about the coat the very first day because it needed only one stitch at that time. When Teddy's father came home, his mother told him the whole story; she didn't forget to mention the coat. The father said, "Now remember! A stitch in time saves nine."

Sent by Duwani Kanchana De Silva,
Highlands
Kandawala, Katana.