Loyal Lassie

One day, our kindergarten story was called Listen Buddy! Buddy, an inattentive little brown rabbit, didn't listen to his parents and wound up at the lair of the Nasty Varmint. Now when Buddy arrived, the varmint was snarling, messing up his hair, and scratching a whole bunch of itches. Naturally I had to demonstrate, so I snorted incessantly, messed up my hair, and scratched myself from head to toe. Of course the children laughed, but amid the laughter, I heard one high-pitched little- girl voice shrieking, "Stop it, everybody! It's just NOT NICE to laugh at the teacher!" Seeing that she was genuinely trying to defend my honor, I said in a soothing voice, "It's okay, Sweetheart. They're just laughing because this is a funny part of the story. But I can tell you have a good kind heart, and I thank you so much for caring about my feelings!" Satisfied, the little dark-eyed beauty nodded her head and showed me a slight smile. As I went on with the story, I had to swallow a lump in my throat, feeling very grateful for the fierce loyalty, kindness, and courage of the little ones in our care.