Tears burned the stings on Hattie’s cheeks as she walked out of the stranger’s house, well aware she was deeply in danger. How she longed to be with her mother at home where it was safe.

Hattie followed the path she had wreaked through the foliage and passed the bee hive. “My mother was right. She offered me her wisdom. The warnings weren’t rubbish.” Finding the game trail she’d stuck to for most of her journey, she trudged onward wearily.

Passing the bush with the shiny orange berries, she looked at it and shook her head at her own foolishness. “She wasn’t trying to keep me from having fun. She was trying to keep me safe.” Fighting exhaustion, Hattie carried on, wanting to get home as soon as she possibly could.

Passing by the tree she had attempted to climb, she looked up at the shiny red apple and wondered how she ever thought she could climb to such a height. “I promise from this day forth to never question my mother again.”

When Hattie could see the edge of the forest, a smile came across her lips. She heard someone cry out, “I see her! There she is!” and a group of men that she recognized from her village walked up to her. One man ran ahead to inform her mother of her return as the others cried, “We’ve been searching for you! Your mother has been worried sick!” Hattie didn’t reply and allowed them to lead her by the hand back to her cottage.

Spotting Hattie, her mother ran towards her. Hattie let go of the men’s hands, “Oh, mother! I should have never left!” she exclaimed. Her mother scooped her up into a hug and kissed her dirt-smeared and tear-streaked cheeks, “I should have listened to you when you said to never climb trees or eat things off of plants I don’t know or disturb bee hives or enter a stranger’s house! And I especially should have listened to you when you said to never go off by myself!”

Her mother said, with tears of joy dripping off the end of her nose, “Thank goodness you are safe!” She held Hattie tighter and thanked the men for spending the night searching the forest for her little girl.

Hattie pressed her face into her mother’s shoulder to dry her own tears. “You can make me do all the dreary chores and I won’t complain about going on adventures!  I just want to stay with you!”

Hattie did exactly what her mother told her from that night on. A few days later, she was about to pet a stray cat in the marketplace when her mother scolded, “Hattie, you should never touch wild animals.”

Hattie pulled her arm away from the cat and pinned it to her side. “Yes, mother,” was her reply.