In a magical land where the sun shone brightly all day long, there floated a beautiful island filled with sweet fruits of every kind. Bananas, oranges, apples, pears, peaches, and plums grew in great profusion. Pip the little penguin lived on this island, and one day saw Tara the turtle swimming near by. He called out to her:
“Tara! Tara! Do come here!”
But Tara never heard him. She was busy diving after her food. Pip shouted louder:
“Tara! Tara! Come here at once!” And at last she turned her head in his direction.
“Tara, have you not breakfasted yet?”
“Oh yes, quite, but I am going to have tea now,” replied Tara.
“Oh Tara, what shall I do? I don’t know where to get my breakfast. Please tell me?”
The little boy gave a cry of joy and clapped his flippers together when Tara told him where to look for his breakfast. So Pip set off at once to the place his friend had shown him, and soon he was waddling back with a huge fish in his beak. But just as he was going to eat it, he looked up and saw a beautiful island floating in the sky at such a height that nothing could be seen living there.
“Tara,” he shouted, “please come here.”
“Yes, yes, what is it?” replied Tara.
“There is somebody on that highest island that I want very much to see. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” replied Tara. She wondered very much where Pip was going to and what he was going to do.
So Pip waddled away to where he saw a number of little birds flying backwards and forwards, and he called out:
“Will you come here, little birds?”
And the little birds came–
And came–
And came–until they were so many they nearly covered the island. And the little fishes watched the birds come, and asked each other what it all meant.
“Please, children,” began Pip, “I am going to pay a visit up there,” and he pointed with his flipper to the sky. “Will you do me a great favour? Will you take some fruits up as you fly? Really kind little birds, I have no other way of sending them.”
“Oh yes,” cried the birds.
“Oh yes,” cried the birds.
“Oh yes,” cried the birds.
And they all flew off at once, and what was his astonishment when the little fishes he had taken his breakfast from came swimming behind him.
“Where, oh where are you going to?”
“We are going to the floating island in the sky,” they all cried, for they hoped to get fish to eat there.
But Pip thought another breakfast might be nice for Tara’s tea, and so he did not tell them.
“Please, kind little fishes, come with us,” he cried.
And at last they did follow him, till when they came to the island in the sky. What was their delight to find a whole world there to play about in! Birds, fishes, and all the animals they could think–of here lived in peace and harmony with one another.
“And did you ever see such wonderful fruits?” said Pip.
“No,” said his little friends; “nothing to eat was ever seen there before.”
Then the birds flew away, and the fishes knew where to go to get food, and Pip waddled off in his curious lazy way to sit under the shade of a large tree.
All the little birds that used to live on the floating island began to build their nests there, because Pip, and Tara, and the fishes decided to live there. And the sun shone brightly on the fruit trees, part of which was laden with ripe juicy fruits.
“But they are for our children; we shall have lots more oranges to eat after,” said they.
And the first thing they did, was to build a little house for Pip.
But Pip shook his head.
“Have your breakfast from these beautiful fruits, and I will swim about till they are ripe enough to gather,” he said, and Tara agreed with him.
So while Pip and Tara got ripe fruits for everybody, one and all lived happily together. And when Pip and Tara went to look at their beautiful home they found that all the floating islands joined together had become one fine piece of land.