Long, long ago there lived a bright little toad with a long grey beard. All of his brothers and sisters would tease him about it because it was most definitely an anomaly. "Look at Francis…what an ugly tuft of hair he has…he kinda looks like a Chia Pet!" Sometimes when he least expected it they would hop up behind him and croak, "Ch-ch-ch-chia!"
He soon felt really bad about himself and didn't know how his brothers and sisters could be so mean. His self esteem sank lower and lower until one day while he was eating his dinner of juicy flies, a rabbit came hopping along the trail and then took a seat beside his lily pad.
"What a might fine beard you have! Did you grow it yourself?" the rabbit asked kindly. "Huh?" grumbled the toad, rather irritated at the disturbance. "I said—how'd you get such a gorgeous beard?" The rabbit reached out and gave a little tug on his beard as if he were making sure it were real.
"Hey, what's the big idea??" the toad bellowed as he finally gave the rabbit his undivided attention. "I'm sitting here, minding my own business, having a nice dinner. The last thing I need is some obnoxious rabbit giving me a hard time."
As the rabbit watched the toad turn away in shame he realized that he needed to be a little more sensitive about the subject. "I didn't mean any offense, sir toad, I just happened to notice out of the corner of my eye something that deserved praise."
"Praise, you say?" he turned back to face the rabbit with a newfound sparkle in his eye. "Yes, enormous praise. In fact, I would give my right foot for such a remarkable gift. And that's saying quite a bit considering it brings me good luck. Having a treasure like yours to call my own, though, would bring me all the luck in the world, I'm sure," the rabbit smiled admirably at the toad making him blush for the first time in his life.
"But all my brothers and sisters say I'm weird. They think I'm a freak and they laugh at me," the toad started sobbing uncontrollably and began to hop away so he could cry in place when the rabbit moved closer so he could put his arm around him.
"There, there, sir toad, there's no reason to be upset. You see, your brothers and sisters are simply afraid of anyone who's different from them; especially those who are supposed to be exactly the same."
"How could anyone be afraid of me?? I couldn't hurt a fly. Well, err, uhh—you know what I mean." They both laughed at that. The rabbit knew what he had to do. "Come on, I wanna take you somewhere," he said while hopping off into the forest.
"Hey, wait up!!" the toad croaked, hopping so fast he nearly tripped over his beard. "Where are we going, rabbit?" "You'll see," the rabbit curtly answered and not another word was spoken until twenty minutes later when they finally came to a clearing in the woods.
"There better be a good reason for this, rabbit," the toad grumbled, stretching his tired, little legs. "Shhh—look!" the rabbit pointed towards the edge of the clearing.
"What, the lonely mushroom?"
The toad couldn't understand why this silly rabbit brought him out here to see one measly mushroom! "Look closer, sir toad." I guess since I came this far I might as well humor him, thought the toad as he slowly hopped closer to the mushroom. There was something peculiar about it.
For one thing, it was least five times taller than any mushroom he'd ever seen along with being at least ten times the width. Peering up at it, the toad was instantly intrigued by its hundreds of neon spots and purple stripes. He was definitely impressed with such a sight, but also slightly repulsed.
"What is wrong with it, rabbit?!" he yelled over at the rabbit who was still seated on the other side of the clearing.
"Why do you assume there's something wrong with it, sir toad?"
"Well, because it's just so different from any mushroom I've ever seen. There's gotta be something wrong it."
"Not all that is different is bad, sir toad. Have you looked underneath it yet, or have you been rudely staring at it this whole time?"
Feeling a little bewildered, the toad glanced at the area underneath the mushroom. Hopping backwards, he stared open-mouthed at the extraordinary community residing there.
Worms, caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, centipedes, millipedes, thousands of ants and ladybugs, cockroaches, june bugs, and several beehives all gathered around together living as if they were all brothers and sisters.
"What in the world…" the rabbit appeared beside him just as he was about to croak from the thought of it all. The kindly rabbit reached out to steady him before explaining.
"You see, sir toad, long ago this mushroom was born in this spot. When the other mushrooms saw how different he was they immediately found a new home to make for themselves on the other side of the forest. They were afraid he had a disease or something dreadful that would kill them all. They didn't stop and think that maybe there's nothing wrong with being different. Differences can actually be a blessing."
"How so?"
"Well, just look at this mushroom. Since he became the only mushroom in a two mile radius he quickly consumed the huge surplus of nourishment from the soil and grew to an astounding height.
Because he was both very large and the only solid covering for miles all of the insects in the area quickly took shelter. Since they were virtually forced to all live together they decided it was best if they learned how to cooperate. They not only cooperate now; they're like one huge family!
Being nice to each other eventually turned into one big party. And just think: all this due to simply being different."
"Well, that's all well and good for the mushroom, but what does this have to do with my beard?" the toad grumbled. Suddenly hushed laughter broke the silence, which made them turn to see two female toads staring right at them.
"Oh, great. You see?? All they ever do is laugh at me! My stupid beard is a curse."
He started to turn away when one of the female toads shouted, "WAIT!"
"Huh?" he turned back around.
She hopped over to him and said shyly, "I've never seen a toad with a beard before. You must be very proud."
"Well, I uhh yeah…" he caught the rabbit grinning broadly at him out of the corner of his eye as he hopped happily away with his female friend into the forest.
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