In the corner of a little garden barn lived a tiny pink piglet named Poppy.
She had a round belly, a curly tail, and the softest ears in the meadow. But there was one thing Poppy didn’t like, the cold.
Even when the other animals snuggled into haystacks and snored happily, Poppy would toss and turn.
“It’s too chilly,” she’d mumble, tucking her hooves under her belly.
“Even my dreams feel frosty.”
One sunny afternoon, while playing near the windowsill, Poppy had an idea. “What if I could keep a sunbeam? Just for bedtime?”
Catching Light in a Jar
All afternoon, Poppy searched the barn for the perfect jar. She found one with a cork lid and sides that shimmered like soap bubbles.
She placed it right in the middle of a golden sunbeam.
She watched.
She waited.
She even whispered,
“Come on in, sunshine. I’ll keep you safe.” By the time the sun dipped behind the barn roof, the jar glowed faintly, like a tiny lantern filled with warm giggles.
That night, when the stars peeked out and the breeze wiggled through the shutters, Poppy snuggled up with the glowing jar beside her snout.
It was warm—not hot—and just right. “You’re my sunbeam jar,” she whispered, already yawning.
Dreaming in Gold
As Poppy drifted to sleep, she imagined herself floating inside the jar, bouncing gently on clouds made of sunflowers, sliding down beams of honey-coloured light.
Inside her dream, the cold couldn’t reach her. She saw hedgehogs sipping tea in sun-warmed mugs. Butterflies flapped by with blankets stitched from dandelions. A sleepy lizard offered her a pillow woven from rays of light.
“It’s always warm here,” he said.“Because you brought the sun with you.” Poppy giggled in her sleep, curled even tighter around her real-world jar.
A Glow That Stayed
From then on, Poppy kept her sunbeam jar near her hay bed. Even on the coldest nights, it glowed gently beside her—soft and steady.
Other animals were curious. “Is it magic?” asked the cat. “Can we try it?” asked the ducklings.
So Poppy helped them find jars too, and soon there were twinkling jars in every corner of the barn.
But Poppy’s always glowed the warmest—because hers was the first to be filled with a wish and a whisper.
And every night, as she curled into her hay, she smiled and said,
“Goodnight, sunbeam. Let’s glow again tomorrow.” And so the piglet who once shivered in the dark slept soundly—glowing from the inside out.
The End !
