Gardner The Baby Hippopotamus

Gardner and his mother lived beside a big river in Africa and early every morning they would wander into a nearby meadow for breakfast. And every morning Gardner would find small furry animals hiding in the grass.

He didn’t know what kind of animals they were and every time he asked, his mom always told him, “Don’t eat them, Gardner!” Well, he never ate any of them but he came close a time or two when they were slow getting out of his way.

In the afternoons he and his mom went down to the river and lounged in the mud to wait for their friends. After everyone returned from breakfast in the meadow they all jumped in the river. This was Gardner’s favorite time of day because he loved playing in the river more than just about anything.

He wished he was big enough to go swimming by himself but he had seen the crocodiles lurking nearby and believed his mom when she told him they were mean ugly bad guys. He had never seen anything that looked meaner or uglier than a crocodile.

He loved to walk along the river bottom and flip over rocks with his feet to see what was under them. Sometimes he would just sit and watch fish or nibble on underwater plants. He often wished he didn’t have to go up for air because sometimes he would get so interested in what he was doing he would run out of breath.

One day he was exploring the river bottom and kicked over a great big rock. Before he knew what was happening a long black fish was staring him in the face.

“Watch where you’re going!” it told him. “You just messed up my house!”

“I’m sorry,” Gardner apologized to the long black fish. He kicked the rock back where it was. “There. I put it back. What kind of fish are you anyway?”

“I’m not a fish. I’m an eel.” It said before it turned and swam under the rock.

Before Gardner could reply, he felt something climb onto his back. Startled he looked around and found a big furry creature staring at him.

“Who are you and what are you doing?” Gardner asked.

“I’m an otter and my name is Willy,” the furry animal told him. “And you’re going to take me home.”

“That’s silly,” Gardner told him. “I don’t know where you live.”

Instead of telling Gardner where he lived, the otter looked up, said “Oh. Oh!”

“Wonder what upset him,” Gardner mumbled when Willy darted away. Gardner looked up and saw a mean ugly crocodile swimming toward him.

“Oh. Oh!” Gardner looked around and didn’t see his mom or any of their friends. How did he get so far away from them? He was in serious trouble and he knew it.

He turned to run and discovered he had kicked rocks around the hole he had his foot in and couldn’t get it out. He was stuck!

“Mr. Otter! Mr. Otter! Please help me!” But Mr. Otter was gone and the crocodile was getting closer and closer.

“MAMA!” screamed Gardner at the top of his lungs.

Mama hippo crashed through a wall of water grass. “There you are! What are you doing way out here? This is where the mean ugly crocodiles live. You come home right now!”

When Gardner saw his mother with three of her friends he didn’t know what was going to happen because they were really mad. The crocodile must have thought so too for when Gardner looked back, its tail was disappearing behind a big log. As soon as his mom discovered his foot was stuck, she and her friends pushed and pushed until his foot came loose.

Gardner had been so frightened that he promised to never stray away again — no matter what he found. He never wanted to see any more mean ugly crocodiles.

Copyright 2020, Katharine Giles
www.thearcheradventures.com