Wallace was a hippo. He loved being a hippo. He loved his thick hippo skin and his huge hippo body. He also loved his mum and dad, and all his hippo brothers and sisters. In fact the only thing Wallace didn’t love was water.
Wallace hated it; water was horrid, scary and wet! Wallace hated water so much that when all the other hippos wallowed in the water and the mud, he would just stand on the bank and watch with a miserable face.
His brothers and sisters would call “Come into the water, Wallace!”
But Wallace would shake with fear and stammer “I h….hate the w....water, it’s all w….wet and w….wallowy”. And then he would burst out crying.
All the other hippos made fun of Wallace, but he didn’t care. He was quite content to watch from the bank and stay nice and dry.
One day while Wallace’s family were having a dip, Wallace went off exploring, he hadn’t gone very far when he heard a noise coming from the bushes. Wallace went closer. He could hear a croaking noise, a sad croaking noise. He nuzzled his big nose into the undergrowth and discovered a little frog on the ground.
“Hello little frog” said Wallace. “Who are you and what are you doing here all alone?”
“My name is Fergal and I’ve hurt my hopping foot” said the frog.” I was playing follow my leader with my brothers and sisters. I was at the back, trying to hop as far as I could. I hopped onto a stone but the stone broke in two, and I fell off. My brothers and sisters just kept on hopping. They didn’t even notice I had gone.” Now, I’m stuck here on dry land, and my brothers and sisters are all back at home on the lily pads” continued Fergal. “I can’t even hop never mind swim. What am I going to do? Please can you help me hippo?
Wallace didn’t know what to do. He hated seeing his new friend so unhappy. He knew the only way to get him back to his family was to carry the little frog on his back, but he also knew he would have to go in the water to take his friend home.
Wallace thought “well if that is what has to be done, I have to do it!”
“Climb on my back little fella” said Wallace, bending as low as he could, to make it easier for the injured frog to climb up. Using all his strength, Fergal climbed onto Wallace’s wide back.
Wallace trundled to the water’s edge with his new friend on his back; he took a deep breath and lowered himself into the water. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he had thought it would be. In fact, it was really quite nice and so he swam across to the lily pads to drop off his little passenger.
Fergal’s family were so pleased to see him, they couldn’t thank Wallace enough. With Fergal safely back with his mum, Wallace swam off to join his own family. But Wallace never forgot his new friend. Each day he would swim over to the lily pads to say hello to Fergal, and then swim back to his family who would shout.
“Come and wallow in the water with us Wallace”. And Wallace would.
