One day Spotty Spot, who lived by the river, was taking the forest path to visit his friend Teddy Bear. It was a pretty long path. Parts of it went through deep, dark woods where the trees hung darkly over the path.
Spotty Spot ate a snack as he trotted along, a nice dried stick of beef jerky. Then Spotty Spot heard a sound: "growwwl".
He stopped. He looked around. There it was again: "growwwl."
Spotty Spot tried to look into the forest, but he couldn't see anything. He walked faster. He felt a little nervous about that growling sound, and he thought about it all the way to Teddy Bear's house.
When he arrived he knocked on Teddy Bear's door and waited nervously for it to open.
"Teddy Bear! I heard a growl on the path today!" said Spotty Spot.
"Oh, that must have been quite nervous-making." said Teddy Bear.
"It was," said Spotty Spot, "What do you suppose it was?"
Teddy Bear thought about that for a moment. He said, "I don't know, but I think that I have heard growling for the last three nights, outside my cabin."
The two friends decided right then that they would figure out what was making that noise. They got out some torches. If you don't know what torches are, they are like long sticks with a fire at one end. Anyway, Teddy Bear's house was in a clearing, and all around the edge of the clearing they stuck torches in the ground, and lit them. When night came, there was a ring of fire light all the way around the cabin.
While they waited Teddy Bear and Spotty Spot cooked. They made a nice beef stew, with big chunks of meat, carrots, potatoes, leeks, mushrooms, and some peas. The smell was delicious.
Then, outside the cabin, they heard it: "growwwl".
They two friends rushed to the window. Lifting the drapes, the peeked slowly out. They could not see anything at first. Then, out in the woods, beyond the torch light, they could see two eyes reflecting red.
Spotty Spot went to the front door and opened it.
"Who is out here?" he shouted.
The eyes blinked, and then a white tiger stepped forward into the light.
"It is only me, Tigedy" said the white tiger.
"Come up onto the porch where I can see you," said Spotty Spot, "and tell me why you have been growling at me and Teddy Bear. Are you a nice tiger, or a mean tiger?"
Tigedy walked up to the porch. He was skinny, and his ribs were showing through his skin.
"I am a nice tiger, and I wasn't growling," said Tigedy. "It was my stomach! I am so hungry that my stomach is growling. I smelled your stew, and I couldn't help it."
"Oh, well," said Spotty Spot, "that is different. Would you like some stew?"
"Yes please." said Tigedy.
So Teddy Bear ladeled out three large bowls of stew and brought them to the porch. Spotty Spot and Teddy Bear sat on one side of the porch, and Tigedy ate on the other, because they still didn't know each other very well.
As Tigedy ate his stew he said, "Oh! Yum! This is the best stew I've ever eaten! You two must be famouse chefs, to make a stew like this. Why, I can't believe how good it is. What a delightful feast!"
This kind of talk appealed very much to Teddy Bear and Spotty Spot, as Tigedy hoped it would. Teddy Bear asked, "Why are you so hungry, and wandering in the woods?"
Tigedy explained about that.
"I was born in a country called India, far away from here. I was captured by a man, who put me in a cage. Three days ago I was being moved, in a truck, and the truck tipped over. My cage opened, and I escaped. But this is not like India. I don't know how to find food, I have no friends, and no place to live."
Teddy Bear and Spotty Spot asked Tigedy so many questions, and when they were convinced he was telling the truth, they invited Tigedy into the house. And that is how Tigedy met Teddy Bear and Spotty Spot, and they all became friends.
The End
(c) 2007 Ken Demarest
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