“You ate all of them?” I heard Mrs. Puddles ask in disbelief as I entered the barn.
I looked down at a sea of little goat faces, and there was one who had his head turned the opposite direction.
“Puddles, do you have anything to tell me?” I asked.
“It was Pickles’ idea! She encouraged me!” Puddles said, and at his feet were many ripped up seed packs.
“Mrs. Dunn, I simply told him how especially delicious the beans are,” said Pickles.
“Puddles, I think Pickles meant the actual beans that grow up from the seeds are delicious, not the seed pods themselves,” I said.
“They were a bit hard,” said Puddles. Earnest the pig came in with his little chalkboard.
“Well, I will have to alter the planting guide again,” he said, as he erased the rows of beans on his layout.
“You mean there won’t be any beans this year?” screamed Hannah.
As you can imagine, this caused little Hannah to start crying, which of course led to old Poetry the goat to say, “Child, there are more important things in life to worry about than beans! Here, use my hankie.”
“Mrs. Dunn, can we buy more bean seeds? You know they’re our favourites and delicious,” said Pancakes.
“Especially delicious,” said Pickles, smacking her gums.
“We’ve purchased our seeds for the year. You have to learn there are consequences for your actions,” I said.
“Conqour-ranches? That doesn’t sound good,” said little Hannah.
“Mrs. Dunn is pointing out that for everything you choose to do, there is a direct correlation in the universe to another thing happening,” said Earnest the pig.
Their faces were blank, and there was silence.
“Earnest means that when Puddles chose to eat the bean seeds all by himself, the herd will now suffer because there won’t be green beans this summer,” I said.
Everyone sighed, and Puddles turned to face the wall again.
“Well, there might be a solution, Mrs. Dunn,” said Earnest the pig, and he grabbed his chalkboard and drew a picture of Puddles’ body. He grabbed a stick, pointed at Puddles’ stomach in the picture, and explained, “This is where the bean seeds are now.”
Everyone shook their heads in understanding.
“By tomorrow morning, they should be leaving the body here,” and he again pointed at Puddles’ body in the picture.
“Oh good grief,” said old Poetry. “Are we really going to be on Puddles Pooping Patrol all for some beans?”
“Well, let me know how all that works out,” I laughed.
“You mean how it all poops out,” said Pickles and we all laughed and laughed...except Puddles.
The next morning, I was headed to the barn when I heard much excitement. Everyone was screaming in joy, “Puddles pooped!”
Everyone was hugging Puddles and thanking him for pooping out the seeds.
“Well, Puddles, you now understand what a consequence is,” I said.
“Yes, Mrs. Dunn. But Mrs. Dunn?” he asked. “I ate some garlic bulbs too.”
