And, right beside him, came Carpenter. It wasn’t hard to guess who had made Leeper’s crutches.
Leeper waved a crutch, and Pibbin hurried over, with Alix close behind.
“You found it!” Leeper said.
Pibbin nodded, and he let Alix tell how they’d pulled the shell out of the bog.
Leeper grinned at Alix. “So you’ve been part of Pibbin’s great adventure, have you?”
“Yes,” Alix said, “but how about—”
He asked one question after another until he’d found out everything Pibbin had done that day.
Finally Gaffer lifted a hand, and all the friends stopped talking.
“I am thankful to see you tonight,” Gaffer said. “I think this must be my happiest birthday ever. Do you know why?”
“I heard your story shell came back,” a spotted turtle said.
Gaffer smiled. “Yes, it certainly did.”
A white-footed mouse fluttered her soft ears. “Is it true that you've got to have your shell, or you can’t tell stories?”
Gaffer shook his head. “Not quite.” He smiled again. “Not really.”
A woodchuck spoke from the back of the crowd. “But how do you do it? Where do your stories come from?”
The mice were nodding, and so were the chipmunks.
The rabbits, who were great story-tellers, twitched up their ears.
“This is what happens,” Gaffer said. “I think about my story for a long time. When I’m ready, I sit close to the shell and listen.”
He bent toward the shell. “I hear a sound like the wind in the pines, and I get quiet inside. I like to think that the quietness makes my voice stronger.”
He smiled. “Maybe it does. But the story comes from my heart.”
“What?” Skitter looked amazed. “I thought you kept your stories in the shell.”
“No.” Gaffer’s voice was gentle. “The shell is like a good friend.”
He gazed at Pibbin with a light in his eyes.
“Friends are important,” he said. “Sometimes we have to learn how to get along without them, and it’s hard. But when they come back, it’s a great joy.”
Pibbin glanced over at Leeper. His pal was grinning as if he’d just caught the tastiest bug in the bog.
“Tell, tell, tell!” sang the peepers.
“Right you are,” Gaffer said. “Now I have a story to tell.”
He leaned close to the shell, and everyone settled themselves to listen.
Leeper propped his crutches on the edge of the deck and stretched out his legs.
Carpenter sat nearby.
Pibbin climbed up onto a branch so he could hear better, and Alix went with him.
“Watch out,” Alix said. “There’s a snake up above us.”
“That’s Miss Green,” Pibbin said. “She’s safe.” He would have plenty to tell her about this day.
The slender green snake glided down the tree to join them.
Gaffer took a deep breath and began.
Long, long ago, a pair of beavers left their lodges in the North.
“Too crowded,” they said. “We need a beautiful place to live.”
And they swam down the Toop River.
They passed golden meadows and thick green forests, but they didn’t stop.
At last they came to a wide, swampy spot in the river. Pine trees and birch trees and berry bushes grew nearby.
“This is beautiful,” they said. “We’ll make our new home here, and we can tell all of our friends to join us.”
Right along behind them came a family of intrepid frogs.
Alix leaned close to Pibbin. “What’s intrepid mean?”
“Kind of like . . . they’re brave, and they don’t give up.”
“Okay,” Alix said. He nodded. “Like you.”
Miss Green dipped her head, nodding too. She smiled at Pibbin, and he smiled back.
Map of Friendship Bog
Frog Photos
Visit http://www.gloriarepp.com to see more photos and information about frogs like Pibbin and the real Friendship Bogs.
Books by Gloria Repp
Noodle Soup
A Question of Yams
The Friendship Bog series:
Pibbin the Small
The Story Shell
For ages 9-12:
The Secret of the Golden Cowrie
The Mystery of the Indian Carvings
Trouble at Silver Pines Inn
Adventures of an Arctic Missionary series:
Mik-shrok
Charlie
77 Zebra
For ages 12 and up:
The Stolen Years
Night Flight
Nothing Daunted
Visit Gloria at http://www.gloriarepp.com for story resources and discussion questions.
Books by Tim Davis
Tim is a longtime illustrator for Highlights magazine, specializing in Hidden Pictures.
He has illustrated several books, including the following titles:
The Cranky Blue Crab
Pocket Change
Once in Blueberry Dell
The Friendship Bog Series:
Pibbin the Small
The Story Shell
Books written and illustrated by Tim Davis
Mice of the Herring Bone
Mice of the Nine Lives
Mice of the Seven Seas
Mice of the Westing Wind, Book One
Mice of the Westing Wind, Book Two
Tales from Dust River Gulch
More Tales from Dust River Gulch
Visit Tim’s website at http://www.timdaviscreations.com
Text © 2011 Gloria Repp
Illustrations and cover © 2011 Tim Davis
Photographs © 2011 Bill Beck
http://www.gloriarepp.com
http://www.timdaviscreations.com
This book is available in print at most online retailers.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.