My Pretty Little Pebble;a short story for kids

A little girl who lived near the woods loved collecting pretty little pebbles. She spent most of her free time rummaging through the forest, river beds, and pastures and anywhere where there was a possibility of finding some more pretty pebbles that she could add to her collection.

The pretty little pebbles did not play with her, did not talk with her, did not laugh with her, all they were able to do was just sit there in their pretty little boxes, but she loved them still for they consumed all of her free time. Nothing could keep her away from them and they needed her too she often said.

Off course, our little girl spent so much of her time collecting her precious pebbles, cleaning them storing in pretty little boxes that she completely forgot to go out and play with her friends. The pretty little pebbles were more important.

So important to her they were that she would often not even come out of her room for they needed to be cleaned, shinned and painted in pretty little colors. And after, they needed to be neatly placed in their little pretty boxes for it was night and they needed to go to sleep for they were her friends and she did not want them to be tired the next day.

Her friends often wondered over to her house and asked her to come join them, but she always replied “I can’t, I have to play with my little pebbles.”

She went on like this for years and years until one fine day, as fine days go, she was all grown up and found herself staring at her now huge pretty little pebble collection. It was huge I tell you, about 1000 of them, all pretty and shiny and tidily nestled in their little pretty boxes.

She looked at them tenderly as if they were alive, but now being a young woman she found herself losing interest in her pretty little pebbles.

One fine afternoon she thought of how much she missed playing with her friends, going to the river and forest with them, playing hide and seek and many other games that little kids play.

She hurried out of the house and went looking for her friends. She looked in all the familiar places where they used to meet and play for hours on end. She even went to some of their houses, but she always got the same response from the parents “they have gone to do other things now that they are older.”

She thanked them all and after searching everywhere she thought that her friends could be, she just gave up and went home.

On the way home she slowly went on in her memory how they would jump into the creek after school, how they would climb up the apple trees and ate till they were full, how they would play in the mud, collect butterflies and stare at the stars. But those times were now gone.

Once in her room she began to stare at her pretty little pebbles. They were really pretty and there were lots of them.

After a while she felt lonely, for she could not find her friends. They had all gone to other places to do other things, even going on to college or starting their own families.

Right then she suddenly realized that she had forsaken the things that really mattered to her; her friends, her playtime, and the company of those closest to her with whom she had spent countless good times before she became obsessed with her pretty little pebbles.

At once she thought “I have wasted so much time playing with my pretty little pebbles that I have forgotten those who were my friends, when they asked me to join them, to be with them, all I could think was about my pretty little pebbles, never again will I become so obsessed with something that I will forsake what is really important."

Friends are precious and friendship is to be treasured. "Never again will I forget this, she finally concluded."