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A PRICKLY Porcupine came wandering along one day, looking for a place to live. He found a family of Snakes in a warm cave, and asked them to let him share shelter.
![[Illustration]](http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/gold/books/stickney/aesop/stickney_aesop_zpage139.gif)
The Snakes consented, though much against their will, and the Porcupine crept into their home. But it was not long before they found that his sharp quills stuck into them and hurt them, and they wished they had never let him in.
"Dear Porcupine, please go away," they said; "you are so large and so prickly."
But the Porcupine was very rude, and said: "Oh, no. If you do not like it here, you can go away. I find it very comfortable."
It was too late that the Snakes learned that it is easier to keep an intruder out than to compel him to go when you have once let him in.