Grendle Green by Brian Doswell (best classic novels .TXT) 📕

“Bump us again Mummy.”

The other baby started to wave her arms up in the air, “Bump us again Mummy.” she called.

At first both ladies were worried that their babies might be hurt but they soon started laughing too and then they started to talk about the little green frog that they had seen on the path.

Grendle hid in the long grass hoping that they were not going to blame him for the accident, and he promised himself that he would never cross the path again without looking both ways.

Soon the two ladies went on their way together pushing their buggies and chattering together as the walked. Grendle was pleased that he had introduced two new friends to each other and wished that he could hop along with them, but he remembered that he was very tired and needed a snooze.

He snuggled down under the long green grass and made himself very comfortable before nodding off for a short nap. He had been asleep in the warm sunshine for at least ten minutes when a cold, wet thing pushed him over onto his side.

Grendle woke up with a start. What could that be? What had knocked him over? Was he in danger?

He opened one big black eye and looked around in a circle. Then he opened his other big black eye and there it was, an enormous, furry, ginger cat pressing its nose as close as it could to Grendle’s face. The cat was not sure if Grendle would be good to eat, and Grendle was not sure if the cat was going to eat him, so the two stared at each other for a few seconds before either one moved.

The cat slowly turned its head round in a circle until it was almost upside down. Grendle watched closely and then tried to turn his head upside down. Unfortunately for Grendle, cats have very twisty necks and frogs do not, so while the cat kept on turning its head, Grendle’s head turned just so far, and then he fell over kicking his strong back legs up in the air as he went.

Quite by chance one of Grendle’s sticky green toes kicked the big ginger cat on the very tip of his nose as it went by, and the cat leapt up in the air with all four legs spread out like the spokes of a wheel on a bicycle.

Grendle was a little bit frightened, but he couldn’t help laughing as the cat landed on all four paws in front of him with its fur sticking out like the bristles on a brush.

The cat had been very surprised by the kick on the nose and wondered if Grendle was a special sort of frog, perhaps a karate expert or a special sort of acrobat.

Grendle was still not very sure about the cat and decided to hop backwards so that the cat was not quite so close. This time he made a much better hop and the cat watched him with both eyes focused on the little green frog. Grendle was not used to hopping backwards and there had been no time to look behind him to see where he might land, so it was no big surprise when he landed on the end of a twig which then bounced up into the air like the other end of a see-saw.

The big ginger cat saw the twig bounce up into the air but it was not quite quick enough to get out of the way and the twig hit it on the nose, in exactly the same spot as Grendle’s foot had been just before.

This time Grendle laughed a lot. His croaky froggy voice made a very unusual noise and the cat realised that it had never heard a frog laugh before. The noise was so funny that the cat began to laugh as well and soon, both of them were sitting in the long grass together laughing all the time as though they had been the very best of friends for a very long time.

Grendle hopped along the edge of the grass and the ginger cat walked along beside him all the time. Grendle’s little green legs could only do little hops compared to the cat’s long ginger legs as they moved around the park together. One time the cat got in front of Grendle and when he hopped, he landed on the cat’s paw. The ginger cat was not worried because Grendle was not very heavy, but he did gently kick Grendle up into the air. Grendle landed safely because that is what frogs do very well, and he thought that having a cat to help him hop would be a good idea, so he deliberately hopped onto the cat’s paw again. The cat realised that they were having a new game and he kicked Grendle up into the air again. This time Grendle landed a bit further away and he hopped along waiting for a chance to do it again.

Grendle did not know that cats get bored very quickly and so when he wanted to try the hop and kick game again the cat appeared to have forgotten what it was all about. Grendle was a bit sad that the cat did not want to play anymore and he hopped back across the path to the edge of the pond to look for a place to have another little sleep.

As Grendle hopped back to the water’s edge he found a small rock which he thought would be a good place to climb up and take a look around. He always liked to know what was going on around him. To his great surprise he could see a big black rock just a few metres away. The rock looked very much like the one that he had left on Monday morning and so he made a special effort to hop over to the rock to see what it was.

To his even greater surprise, it was exactly the same big black rock that was his home and, under the rock, were his one hundred brothers and sisters all waiting to hear about his big adventure.

Grendle realised that he must have hopped in a straight line all around the pond. He was probably the only frog ever to hop all around the pond and he would tell his brothers and sisters all about it, but not tonight. Now it was time for one of Grendle’s little snoozes, he would tell them all about his adventures in the morning.


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Publication Date: 05-25-2010

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