The Wild Boar

 

Gwen was a little girl who lived in the countryside. She loved to climb trees, run through the fields and play all day, but she didn’t like to help her mother with the housework.  She was so tired of her mother calling her to help with tidying her room. “Why should I have to help, I’m not the only one sleeping in my room, why can’t my sister do it?”

 

Gwen didn’t care that everyone had different things that they had to do to help around the house. She just didn’t want to help at all, unless it came to eating, or wearing the nice clean clothes, or playing on the recently cleaned floor. These things Gwen liked to do very much and she never thought about who had to do all the work so everything would be nice for her to enjoy.  

 

“Gwen, come and tidy your room!” mother cried out. Gwen stayed where she was. “Why is she always picking on me?” She thought “I hate her –she’s always calling me to do work when I want to play!”

 

With this Gwen decided that she wasn’t going to do anything to help anymore even if she got told off!  

 

“I don’t care what mum says, I want to play and I don’t want to be told what to do!”  Just then Gwen heard her mother calling again “Gwen, where are you? You haven’t done anything I asked you to do – I can’t do everything all by myself – can you at least clean your room?”

 

“NO!” shouted Gwen “I’m not doing anything for you anymore – I’m tired of working all the time!”

 

“Gwen the only thing I asked you to do is clean your room and you are the one who messed it up. It’s not fair for your sister to always be cleaning it when you are always making a mess and never helping. Now please go and clean your room” Her mother was using her serious voice so Gwen knew she was in trouble nevertheless she shouted again “NO – stop picking on me – I hate you!” and ran out the door.

 

Mother shook her head she didn’t know what to do with Gwen. She had 6 other children to worry about and Gwen was the only one who never wanted to tidy up behind her and who always argued about everything.  “Gwen, come back inside it’s getting late!” She called after Gwen who was already gone out the door, down the path and into the fields running as fast as she could.

 

“I don’t care what she says - I’m not going to do it! I’m so fast she will never catch me and my sister can just clean the room instead!”  Gwen kept looking behind her to see if her mother was following her but she couldn’t see anyone. “Good” she thought “I’ve lost her and I’ve won” and with that she stopped to play in the fields and have a wonderful time doing whatever she wanted.

 

But after a while she began to remember how rude she had been to her mother and how she had run off. She knew she was in big trouble and now when she looked to see if her mother was coming she didn’t feel angry anymore, she felt afraid. “Oh no, I am in such big trouble. I don’t why I was so rude I am sure I am going to be punished. Maybe my mum is planning to punish me right now; maybe that is why she is taking so long to find me. If I had a little girl who treated me like that I wouldn’t let her get away with it!”

 

The more Gwen thought about it the worst she felt about how she had behaved and the more sure she was that she deserved to be punished. But do you think this made sorry? Oh no, Gwen was still very stubborn. “Well” she decided “If mum wants me to come home I am going to make her beg and promise to be nice to me and treat me the way I want to be treated and NO MORE HELPING – EVER!”

 

With that Gwen turned and walked through the field to a fence. She walked around the fence to where there was a hole in it and crept though it slowly, being very quiet and careful to look around first. Then she ran as fast as she could across the field and up a big strong tree. Gasping for breath near the top of the tree Gwen looked down to see if she was safe.

 

There at the bottom of the tree was the wild boar that her father had caught and put in the field. It looked a little bit like a big, hairy, angry pig with tusks that curled and eyes that stared at you really hard.  She knew it was wild and she knew that meant that it would hurt you or even kill you if it could.

 

Now her mother would have to beg her to come down and promise not to ask her to help anymore or she would stay in the tree forever.  Just then she heard her mother calling for her “Gwen, Gwen – where are you?”  “I’m over here” Gwen replied as she smiled at just how clever she had been.

 

“Gwen, what are you doing in that tree? The Boar is dangerous and now it sees where you are it will wait for you to come down so that it can hurt you. Stay still and don’t come down whatever you do – I’ll go and get help.”

 

“Mum, I’m not coming down until you promise to let me do whatever I want and no more room tidying! I don’t care about the boar if you don’t promise I’ll throw myself on the ground and let the boar kill me! I will, I’ll do it – promise!”

 

Mother was shocked “Gwen, don’t talk like that. Life isn’t like the cartoons on television. If you fall you will hurt yourself and we may not be able to help you. You must be very careful not to fall. Wait here while I go and get help.”

 

So mother went off to get help and Gwen began to watch the boar that was watching her and rubbing his big curly tusks against the tree.  Gwen began to realise that this wasn’t like TV at all. She was scared and cold and hungry and just wanted to go home. As it began to get dark she was still stuck in the tree but she knew her father would be home from work soon and that mother would bring him to get her down. So she waited and waited and wished she had just cleaned her room and kept her big mouth shut.

 

Then she heard her father calling to her “Gwen, Gwen! Why are you in that tree – didn’t I tell you about how dangerous the boar was and that you should never go in that field?”

 

Gwen nodded “yes, but it’s not my fault, mum kept asking me to help and I ran away to play and then came here so I wouldn’t be told off, but I want to go home now. I’m tired and hungry and it’s getting cold.”

 

Father shook his head he didn’t know why Gwen was so stubborn and so messy.  He had tried talking to her but he just couldn’t get her to understand how the things she did and said hurt the people around her. Now he had to figure out how to get her out of the tree without the boar killing her.  He thought and thought and only one idea came to him. There was only one way. He would have to go into the field and when the boar charged at him he would have to kill it to save Gwen. This made him so sad. He didn’t want to hurt the boar at all but there was no other way and he could see that Gwen was falling asleep, which would mean that she would fall out of the tree, so he couldn’t even wait for more help.

 

Into the field father climbed, and the boar turned and charged at him with all its strength. All father had was his long knife or machete that he used for cutting grass. Gwen was wide awake now, she was terrified. The boar was going to kill her father and it was all her fault. Then just at the last minute father moved, the boar missed him and as it turned he hit it with machete. She could see blood – but whose blood? Was it the boars or her fathers?

 

By now Gwen was crying and promising herself never to be stubborn again but it was too late, she was already stuck up a tree and her father was in danger all because of her.

 

Then she saw her father walk towards the boar which wasn’t moving as much as before and do something to its head. The boar was dead and her father was alright. Gwen was so happy! Everything was OK again. She climbed down the tree and ran to her father who hugged her tight and carried her home.

 

And just as Gwen was carried past the boar she looked down and saw how different it looked to before and realised that everything wasn’t really OK because the boar was dead and that was her fault and it was dead just because she didn’t want to clean her room or listen to her mother.

 

Gwen learned an important lesson that day. I hope it’s a lesson you already know. What we do affects the people and things around us, even when we really want our own way we should always stop and think about whether we are doing the right thing or not. And if not then we should stop.