The moon rose from the clouds and the stars came rushing towards her, they loved to groom her and hide the cracks on her face, the stars started to sing as they covered up the moon, they sang-

                      ‘ Twinkle, twinkle, little moon!

                       How we wonder how you look!

                       High above the violet sky,

                       Pretty as the diamond shines.’

When the stars were singing their songs, Maria had crossed the gravel path and had come across a series of fences arranged around the reddish-brown bush, and above was a lark roosting in her nest, Maria went towards her and asked for Hoggie.

“OOO! WOO! And what do we have here?” the lark replied.

Maria cleared her throat and said, “ I am looking for Hoggie, now if you could be so kind to show me where he is,”

The lark scratched her head, trying to remember if she can recall any memories about Hoggies and Hogs and dogs and frogs and orcs after some time she flapped her wings and flew around Maria.

“little…? Sorry, what was your name again?” the lark asked her.

“Again?” Maria replied, “but I haven’t told you my name yet, how can I say my name again, my name is Maria by the way.”

The lark flew much higher, “ well it's better to say twice than once, after all, two is better than one or three maybe..”

She came closer to Maria and started singing-

              ‘Little Maria has lost her pet

               And don’t know where to find them,

               Leave them alone and they’ll  come home

               So, don’t you worry my dear child,’

Maria giggled, as the lark roosted back in her nest.

“correction,” Maria said, “It is only ‘he’ and not ‘them’ nor ‘they’.” But the lark was already snoozing in her nest not hearing a word what Maria had said.

After the moon’s face had been covered she shone brightly, so brightly that the stars had to cover her up again.

Maria went down the hills and jumped across the fence, she heard the sound of a guitar and went there because she was curious but instead, she found a brown cat strumming the guitar, he had no arms and legs but was playing the guitar.

“Mister cat,” Maria said “ do you know where I can find my brown hedgehog? I have come a long way just to find him, if you may please tell me where he is.”

The cat looked at her and twitched his whiskers and he sang a song to her with his deep voice-

                       ‘String, string, string; Pussy in the garden,

                        Who plays the banjo; Pussy in the garden,

                        Who has no arms and legs; Pussy in the garden,

                        What a strange thing for a cat to strum the banjo.’

“ I believe it’s a guitar that you’re holding and not a banjo.” Said Maria rather timidly.

“Guitar, Banjo… they’re the same thing, as long as it has strings, hollows, pipes and can play…” replied the cat.

“ Guitars don’t have pipes,” Maria said triumphantly.

“ well, pianos too, don’t have keys, but we call those black and white keys, don’t we?” replied the cat.

Maria couldn’t find an answer to beat the answer so, she just stood there rubbing her hands and stayed silent for some time, the cat broke the silence and said, “ and what were you looking for?”

“ Oh! Yes, my brown hedgehog.” She replied, “ he jumped over our garden wall and has disappeared and I am looking for him so-..”

“ok ok ok stop!.” The cat interrupted, Maria stopped at once.

“ Now look here little girl, there have been lots of brown hedgehogs here lately, so I think one of them must be yours.” He said while giving a strum on his guitar.

“ His name is Hoggie,” Maria said. The cat looked away from her, “ go search in the forest there will be lots of brown hedgehogs, bet one of them is yours.” He said and continued playing his guitar.