Of all the frogs who lived in the pond in the woods, Giuseppe was by far the cleverest. He could talk for hours about the stars in the sky, the way that plants grew, or the lives of great poets and kings. He also had a very big vocabulary!
“That Giuseppe knows so many fancy words that sometimes I can’t understand what he means!” his neighbour said. “That’s how clever he is!”
Giuseppe was a very friendly and polite frog, but he was also proud of being the smartest in the pond. That was why he never asked for anyone’s advice or cared about their opinions!
One day, he decided to go into the woods to read.
“I want to finish my book, and it is hard to concentrate here because of all the croaking!” he said to himself. So he hopped off into the forest and found a nice toadstool to read on.
After reading for a few hours, though, Giuseppe felt restless. “I might wander around for a bit!” he said. “I’ll take the long way back to the pond – who knows what I will find along the way?”
He hopped off down the forest path – but before long, he had lost his way.
“Have I gone past that tree stump before?” he thought. “I was sure that my pond was over here!”
Just then, a mole poked his head up out of the earth.
“Oh, hello Giuseppe!” the mole said. “You’re quite far from the pond – do you need directions?”
Giuseppe didn’t want anyone to think that someone as clever as him would need help.
“Oh no, I’m fine!” he told the mole before hurrying off.
By now, it was getting quite dark. Would Giuseppe be able to get back home before…
