This is Ria.

Welcome to Little Stories for Tiny People.

Sometimes I'll be going about my day.

Dum, daddily dumb,

when it'll hit me.

Oh, right.

I live on this enormous rock, full of creatures big and small that is orbiting a star we call the sun. It's a big thought and it makes me feel grateful to be here telling stories to you.

Let's get to our story. Hope in the Garden. Remember, there are no pictures. You'll have to

imagine the pictures in your mind. You can imagine them however you want. Okay, here we go. Hope teetered on the edge of the garden. This time she was really leaving.

These animals said they wanted her here, needed her even. But they didn't

seem to do much besides wish she'd stay. It was true. they did need her, but another truth was that she couldn't get much

done without them. She needed them as much as they needed her.

Hope turned back to gaze at the garden she'd called home her whole life.

She closed her eyes and remembered being a tadpole, and then a tiny frog. The garden had been bursting with life.

Flowers had wound themselves round each other, fighting to get the most sunshine.

Hummingbirds had flitted close to the ground.

Butterflies had opened their wings for the very first time among these green leaves.

The spring rains had seeped deep into the soil.

Everything, everything, had been green.

Hope sighed and opened her eyes.

This garden could hardly be called such now.

It was green in parts, but the flowers were few and far between. The

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