The Story of the Fox and the Bear

Once upon a time, a young fox was living in a quiet forest. He had always heard rumors of the great, mean, grizzly bear. The young fox paid no attention to this though. As he grew, the forest started to deteriorate, day by day, month by month. And slowly but surely, the forest became a huge dump. The fox was very sad now and had no hope the forest would get any better.

One day, the fox was trotting down the trashy path when he heard a loud stomping noise. In the distance, he saw the great grizzly bear moving wildly and thrashing his arms about. The fox was a little afraid of approaching the bear, but his curiosity couldn’t hold him back. He slowly inched towards the bear to find out that the grizzly bear wasn’t doing anything destructive and harmful but was doing good. The grizzly bear was trying to clear out the trash in the forest! Now, the fox was very surprised to see this act of kindness and wondered why a grizzly bear, out of all the animals in the forest, would do such a thing. So, the fox approached the bear and asked. At first, the bear was very surprised at the fox’s remarks. The bear believed that anyone and everyone should be working to clean out the forest.

The fox never thought of even trying to clean up any of the trash because he thought the forest was doomed either way. Seeing how the grizzly bear was working very hard to clear the forest out, he felt very hopeful. The one animal that he never expected to help was the one who contributed the most. The fox followed in the bear’s path and started to clear the trash out, inviting other animals too. Those animals felt the same way as him, but once they started, the whole forest changed.

Now, the forest is a very lively and clean area with all the animals united together as a family. Hope is seeing the light in spite of being surrounded by darkness. Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.

A bunch of young foxes were playing around in the leaves and saw an old fox walk by.

The young foxes paid no attention to this man except one small curious fox. The curious fox walked up to the old fox and asked, “I’ve always been pondering this question. What is the name of this forest?” The old fox replied, “It’s called Hope Forest.” “Why?” the young fox said. “Well, it’s a long story.”

Written by Jake Chang, Age 14