He was or rather had to be the scrawniest and runtiest porcupine in the entire forest; the Medicine Bow Forest out Happy Jack way. Yes siree Bob he was one runty feller and all the other porcupines hated him and ran him off when they started to eat for he was know to them as "Soupy" cause when he ate he always slobbered and his food ran down his front. So when Soupy came around the other Porcupines would either ignore him or cuff him and knock him away until he left the area.

Well one lazy May morning there were seven Porcupines up in this one pine tree eating bark, including Soupy, for no one had yet whomped him so he would fall out of the tree. Things were quiet, the birds were singing quite noisily and of course the gnat and skeeters were thick, but heck porcupines do not pay any mind to gnats and skeeters; see a porcupine only has one thin spot and that is the tip of his nose.

All at once the forest became quiet and then, Oh no! You could hear the brush being beaten and trees knocked around for here came a mangy old grizzly bear. A very mad grizzly bear at that for mister grizzly had just been whomped by a big old bull elk just up the hill there. It seems mister grizzly thought the elk should leave their browsing area when he came round to eat the wild berries. Griz made old 'Buttum' elk mad and 'Buttum' lived up to his name and butted Griz so hard Griz rolled down the hill into the creek.

As soon as Griz saw all the porcupines in that one tree, he roared and they did not jump out of the tree and run so it made Griz mad, so he went over to the tree and started scratching. Now if you have never seen a grizzly bear scratching a tree, you have missed it. For when they get to scratching, they sometimes knock down half the trees in the area.

So Griz starts to rubbing on the tree and it starts to waver and all the porcupines knew they were going to fall out and land on old Griz and each knew that one swipe of his paw would mean check out for them.

Soupy, since he was the lowest one in the tree was about to fall for is claws and strength were not enough to withstand a good scratching by an old grizzly bear. Soupy tried, oh how he tried to hold on but his grip failed him and he started to fall. As he fell he hit a limb, which caused him to spread out and to roll over on his back. Soupy knew he was a goner, bye bye all of you, I forgive you he thought in that brief thousandth of a second; a short time which seemed an eternity to a falling porcupine. A runt porcupine falling on top of a mad grizzly bear.

As fortune would have it or as dame fortune dictated Soupy landed on the grizzly bear's nose! Griz felt the intense pain as Soupy's back hit him, driving all those quills into Griz's tender nose. Instinct made Griz shake his head and that flung Soupy into a tall bush where he landed and then rolled to the ground unhurt out of sight of the mad Grizzly bear.

Old Griz let out a roar the people in both Laramie, Cheyenne could hear, and wonder about, cause old Griz was hurt and oh did it hurt. He immediately started to run and since is nose hurt so bad he could not see where he was going so just as he gained a full head of steam he ran headlong into the rock Soupy was behind.

Kerwham, kerplop and one big old mad grizzly was lying on the ground unconscious.

Soupy shaking and nearly scared to death was just gaining his senses and so he walked up on top of the grizzly bear lying there on the ground and stopped.

Soupy looked up in the tree and in his squeaky voice hollered, "You can come down now it is safe." Then he headed for his burrow before anyone cuffed him.

The other six porcupines climbed down out of the tree and walked over to the Grizzly bear lying there and stopped. They just stood there in a semicircle around the bear, six porcupines in a semicircle just standing looking at an unconscious Grizzly bear. Then one of them said, "Wowie, Soupy fixed him, Soupy is a hero."

And so began the legend of Soupy porcupine. Needless to say after that he did get more food so he grew and he grew and before wintertime he was the largest porcupine in the forest.