On a particularly sunny day, Pip the Panda decided to go for a nice stroll in his favourite Bamboo Forest. The sun was shining through the leaves above, warming his black limbs as he munched on some juicy bamboo. What a lovely life he lived, when the biggest problem in the world was trying to find the tastiest piece of bamboo!
But as Pip waddled along watching the butterflies dance and the squirrels play, he suddenly noticed he had wandered further than he ever had before. All at once he could not see any familiar place, while as for hearing any voice he knew— Pippa’s or Mamma’s— the forest was utterly silent.
“Hallo! hallo!” he cried in the direction he thought his home was, but not an answer did he get.
“Oh dear,” said Pip, sitting down upon a grassy bank and beginning to cry, “I wish I had never come out this morning. I shall never find my way home again.”
He began crying more and more, when suddenly he thought he saw a shadow pass over him. Looking up, who should he see but Bimble the blackbird fluttering down before him.
“Oh, Pip, is it you?” he exclaimed.
“Why, I thought a child had lost a little dog.”
“Oh! Bimble,” sobbed Pip, “I am lost. I do wish you would take me home. I have cried so since I lost my friends I do feel so sad.”
“Why, it is only just up that path you came, and over the next hill,” replied Bimble. “I will carry you there in two flies. Jump on my back.”
So Pip the Panda jumped on to the blackbird’s back, and away he flew over the trees, with Pip seated comfortably and firmly waiting to know his journey’s end.
“There is your house,” said Bimble, looking down, “that is, if you do not live in a hole in the ground.”
But just then the old lady of the house came to the door, and Pip cried joyfully, “No, no! I live just there, at the corner there,” pointing with his paw.
“Ah,” said the blackbird, “I see it now. I thought you had forgotten your home.”
“Thank you a hundred times,” cried Pip, kissing his kind little black friend as he jumped off his back. “How shall I ever be able to repay you?”
“Only see that you do not forget your way again. Next time come with me through the trees by the Fedora Brook. There are lots of lovely fruits to eat, and you can have a nice swim”
Bimble gave a loud chirp, flapped his wings, and flew away, delighted that he had been able to set his little friend on the right road again.
How happy Pip was to get home to Mamma and Pippa! If you want to know the sort of welcome he got from Pippa, all I can say is, it was so warm it made little Pip feel quite hot.
“And where have you been?” she exclaimed. “I have just been everywhere looking for your dear little paws, and now you can tell me about all your adventures.”
But just then Pip’s big eyes began to close, and in another second he had made Bimble’s favourite saying true, for he was “asleep as a panda.”
Moral of the Story
Friends can help you when you’re lost.