Gerry the Giant woke up one fine sunny day and said, “I will give a party, I will have all my friends over to dinner.”
So he rushed to the window and called, “Hello there, Girty Giraffe! Come here, please. Pola Penguin, come here, please. Bingle Bear, come here, please. Teeter Tetmouse, come here, please. Hennis Hen, come here, please. Cherry Cow, come here, please.”
In just a few minutes all of Gerry’s friends stood before his door. What a wonderful happy lot they were! There was Gerty Giraffe with her long neck and sweet fuzzy black eyes. Pola Penguin, all dressed in black and white, and very fat he was too. Bingle Bear was as big and as shaggy as a carpet. Teeter Tetmouse was a little fellow with big bright eyes, while Hennis Hen was wide awake and as red and brown as the prettiest sunset ever was. Last but not least, there was old Cherry Cow, the best friend that Gerry Giant had in all the world. She was as big as two of the party put together!
“Dear friends,” said Gerry the Giant, “I want you all to come to dinner here today at two o’clock. I am just about to step out and order a nice dinner for you.”
“Oh! don’t do that!” cried all of them at once. “We will manage that ourselves.”
“Of course,” said Gerry the Giant looking at the clock. “It is now exactly half-past one. You will have time enough to get it if we all hurry.”
“But what shall we have to eat?” croaked Bingle Bear.
“Dinner! dinner! dinner!” screamed Teeter Tetmouse.
“Dinner what?” asked Gerry the Giant.
“I don’t know; but we shall find out some dinner,” he chirped.
Gerry was puzzled. He did want his friends to have a nice dinner, but what they should have he just couldn’t imagine himself.
“You know we cannot go outside of your house,” reminded Hennis Hen gently. “Suppose you tell us what you have got in the house. Then we will see what we can do with it.”
“Oh! I am sure there is plenty of everything!” laughed Gerry the Giant, “so you’d better come up.”
Now, Gerry Giant had a big house. There was a big room at one end of it. This was Gerry’s room, and all his friends went up to see what he had in it. And what do you suppose he had? Some little barrels with lids on them. Gerry the Giant opened one of these barrels. It was full of grapes, the best grapes that ever were seen. He opened another little barrel, and it was full of nice ripe plums. He opened a third barrel, and it was full of the juiciest apples in the land. A fourth barrel was full of pumpkins. Then there were two dozen of eggs in a basket, and a piece of dried fish was hanging up near the window. Some nice fat boiled potatoes stood on a shelf all in a row.
“My friends! my friends!” said Gerry the Giant, trying to look cheerful. “It does seem too bad, but I do not see a single thing that we can have for dinner today.”