The Turtle, the Hippo and the Elephant

A handsome hippo and an elegant elephant had always been very good friends. The hippo spent most of his day treading in the water, pushing off of river banks and floating. The elephant spent most of his time on dry land, until it became extremely hot. Then he’d use his trunk to spray fresh water to cool down.

As different as they were, though, they always ate together. The elephant would trumpet from the top of his lungs, stamping, and the hippo would come up to the surface, splashing water all around and snorting loudly. This was how they always knew it was lunchtime.

A shy and lonely turtle had been watching their friendship for some time. She didn’t have any friends. When she saw how much fun the elephant and the hippo had together, she wanted dearly to join them.

But day after day, the tentative turtle was too scared. So she always ate alone on the bank, chewing on juicy leaves and feeling quite sorry and sad they weren’t her friends.

One day, she finally mustered the courage to speak to the handsome hippo and the elegant elephant. She wanted to become their friend badly. In their eyes, though, she was much too small, weak and quiet in their eyes.

What could she offer them, after all? They certainly didn’t want to share their grass and berries with her, not in the slightest. Besides, they already had friends - they had each other. They told her to go and leave them alone with their lunch.

After a while, the elephant felt quite bad that they had told the turtle to go away. He decided to give her a chance. “You can never have too many friends,” he thought.

So he lifted his trunk high, trumpeted and said,…