Peter Porcupine Learns a Lesson is the story of a young porcupine who likes to shock the adults around him by using foul language. His mother tries everything she can think of to correct this bad habit. She lectures him, gives him a time out, even tries washing his mouth out with soap all to no avail. Then comes the coldest winter in over a hundred years and Peter's words freeze, only to thaw out in the spring allowing young Peter to know exactly what he sounds like. This story is based on a story told to the author by her father when she was a young girl, only then the foul mouth belonged to a miner, and the townspeople were the ones who were offended.