Ep 22 · The Mending Day

Bongo the bear cub LOVES to help — he's just a bit of a klutz about it. So when he tries to tidy up for Old Timber and accidentally knocks the elephant's most precious keepsake — a smooth memory-stone he's carried since he was young — and it cracks clean in two, Bongo does the thing every kid has been tempted to do: he hides the pieces and hopes nobody finds out. But the hiding turns out to be far heavier to carry than the truth. With a gentle nudge from Shelly ("heavy things get lighter when you set them down"), Bongo finally owns up — and Old Timber meets him not with anger but with mercy, and together they mend the stone, the new seam becoming Old Timber's favorite mark of all. A warm story about honesty and grace: that covering up a mistake keeps it heavy, but telling the truth brings mercy. Anchored in a line the wise King Solomon wrote in the Bible, in the book of Proverbs: whoever conceals their wrongs won't prosper, but whoever confesses them finds mercy. With Professor Hoot's Totally True Facts on how trees grow around their wounds — the mark staying as part of the story — and a Mudpuppy Minutes that explains, confidently and gloriously wrong, how broken things get mended. For kids ages 4-12. Stories of honesty and kindness from Old Timber and the friends at Shiloh Creek.