Once upon a time, in a town not so far away, lived a disobedient granddaughter. She wasn’t disobedient all the time, just some of the time. Usually, she was pretty good.
However, one day she spied a stick of gum on her grandmother’s dresser and she took it. Grandma told her granddaughter that Mama did not want her to have gum.
“But I want it.”
“Mama said no. She doesn’t want you to have gum.”
This conversation did not end well. Granddaughter was feeling naughty. “Mama is just a grouch!”
At this exclamation Grandma threw the gum away into the waste basket. But granddaughter did not listen and she sneaked the gum out of the trash. Worse, when no one was looking she put it in her mouth. She thought she was being clever and chewed the gum quietly and was careful that no one saw her chewing.
Soon however, the sweetness inside the gum went away. The gum wasn’t so sweet anymore. In fact, it didn’t have any taste at all. It felt like she was chewing paper. Yuck!
But she was a stubborn granddaughter and kept the gum in her mouth all the way to bedtime. She was really chewing the gum in her bed because no one was watching her, now. She chewed and chewed and chewed, until she fell asleep. She only stopped chewing because she was asleep. In fact, just as she fell asleep the gum fell out of her mouth, through her teeth, over her lips, and onto her pillow.
Granddaughter didn’t know the gum had fallen out and was stuck on her pillow. She didn’t know that when she turned her head her hair got stuck on the gum. She had no idea that every time she turned over in her sleep, the gum was squashed and squished deeper and deeper into her beautiful long as a princess hair.
Her hair was a mess of gum. But granddaughter didn’t know. In the morning, she got out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast. Mama was shocked.
“What happened to your hair?”
Granddaughter touched her hair to smooth it down ….WHAT? At first she thought bugs were in her hair, but then she remembered. It was the gum. The gum was stuck all over her hair. Really stuck!
Granddaughter started to cry.
“You naughty girl! Look what you did to your long as a princess hair.”
Mamaa tried to pull the gum out but it hurt. Soon the granddaughter was really, really crying. It was terrible. Mamma scolded and the crying turned to screaming.
There was only one thing to do.
“Oh no!” Granddaughter’s eyes opened wide. Her feet walked her backwards. Her body whimpered and shivered. “No-o-o-o-…”
Mama had scissors in her hand. She had no choice. She had to cut the gum out of the hair—that beautiful, long as a princess hair.
Snip, snip….soon the crying softened to whimpering, to sniveling. But the gum was cut out.
Oh, her hair? Gone was the long as a princess hair. Granddaughter now looked like Henry Hugglemonster.
What a lot of unhappy trouble Granddaughter caused. All because she didn’t obey her mother. I hope she learned her lesson. Mother knows best.
