

Lily and Tom were playing in the garden. They liked to dig holes and find bugs and worms. They also liked to eat snacks that Mom gave them. Today, Mom gave them some crackers and cream. Cream was white and soft and yummy.
"Look, I found a big worm!" Tom said, holding a long, brown thing in his hand.
"Let me see!" Lily said, running to him. She saw the worm and made a face. "That's not a worm, Tom. That's a snake!"
"A snake?" Tom said, dropping it. "But it's not scary. It's not moving."
"That's because it's dead, Tom. It's rotting. That means it's old and bad and smelly. You don't want to touch it. It can make you sick."
"Yuck!" Tom said, wiping his hand on his shirt. "I don't like rotting things. They're gross."
"Me neither," Lily said. "Let's go eat our snacks. They're fresh and good and tasty."
They ran to the picnic blanket where Mom had left their snacks. They picked up their crackers and cream and took big bites. They smiled and chewed.
But they didn't notice that the cream had been in the sun for too long. It had turned sour and lumpy. It was rotting too.
Soon, they felt sick in their tummies. They spit out the cream and cried.
"Mom! Mom!" they called. "The cream is bad! It's rotting!"
Mom heard them and came running. She saw the cream and smelled it. She made a face too.
"Oh, no!" she said. "I'm sorry, kids. I forgot to put the cream in the cooler. It went bad in the heat. You shouldn't eat it. It can make you sick."
She hugged them and gave them some water to drink. She threw away the cream and the crackers.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Lily and Tom nodded. They felt better after drinking the water. They learned their lesson.
They never ate rotting things again. They only ate fresh and good and tasty things.
And they stayed away from distant snakes.
