Badger’s Parting Gifts

Badger is very old, and he knows that sometime soon he will die. He is not afraid, and is only worried about how his animal friends will feel when he’s not around any more. One day he settles down in his chair and has a dream that he is running, fast and without pain, towards a long tunnel. He feels free and happy. The next day his friends discover that he has died in the night and read a note he has left for them, which simply says “Gone down the Long Tunnel. Bye Bye, Badger”. His friends are desperately unhappy as they loved Badger dearly. Mole in particular takes badger’s death very badly and cries himself to sleep. Winter sets in, and all the friends continue to feel very sad and to miss Badger. Spring appears, and the friends begin to visit each other and talk about all the happy times they had with Badger, the things he has taught them and the way he made them feel. Badger had left each of his friends a parting gift – a special memory of something he had taught them that they could now do extremely well. Their sadness melts with the snow, and they remember badger with a smile on their faces.