Once up a time there was a penguin named Bartleby. Bartleby was not the most popular penguin. He was smart and funny and very good at sports, but he just didn't fit in very well. He had glasses and braces and wore bow ties. The other penguins teased him all the time. They especially didn't like him because he LOVED to cover his fish-heads with clouds of black pepper at lunch time. He used SO much pepper that it made everyone around him sneeze and sneeze and sneeze.
Bartleby's favorite person in the village was his Grandpa. Grandpa was the oldest and wisest penguin in the village, and as such, he was also the village leader. Everyone came to Grandpa for advice, and everyone just called him "Grandpa." Bartleby's favorite thing in the world was to sit at Grandpa's feet and listen to all his old, fantastical stories.
One day there was a great big storm in the penguin village. The sky went black and the ice shook with thunder and lightning. The penguins were all trying to run away, but there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
After the storm ended Bartleby was one of the penguins to help and fix up all the ice and get all the fish back in the water too. But there was only one thing that was missing: his family! The storm had wiped away his family, even Grandpa! He was all alone, except for his best friend, his teddy bear, Ted.
Bartleby didn't hesitate. He was a penguin of action. He marched straight into his igloo, and started to pack a bag to go search for his family. He went through the checklist:
Yummy fish-heads? Check.
Flashlight? Check.
Only friend besides Grandpa (teddy bear)? Check.
Extra bow ties? Check.
And a small barrel of pepper? Check.
He waved goodbye to the village as he trudged out into the snow, but nobody seemed to notice. He climbed over hills, swam through rivers, and walked and walked and walked and walked some more. Finally, he could walk no more, and he collapsed face down on the ice. He was just starting to drift off to sleep when a deep voice said: "You wouldn't be looking for a lost family of penguins, would you?"
"Yes, yes I am! Where - - wait, who are you?" Bartleby asked the voice.
"Oh, I'm just a walrus who knows where your family is." Said the walrus.
"Where!? Where are they?!" Bartleby was jumping up and down.
The Walrus just stared at Bartleby a long moment, summing him up. To the walrus, Bartleby looked like just the dessert he was looking for after that yummy penguin family. He decided to try and outsmart Bartleby. He grinned and said:
"They're right this way, my boy." And with that the walrus opened his mouth bigger than Bartleby even knew a mouth could open. Unable to talk any more, the walrus simply pointed down his own throat with his big front flipper.
"I'm coming guys!" Bartleby shouted, and jumped straight in to the walrus's mouth. He went down in one great gulp.
For a little while he was falling and then hit bottom with a splash. It was dark and wet and smelly, so Bartleby dug into his pack and pulled out his trusty flashlight.
"Hello? Gee, it didn't look this big from the outside."
TO BE CONTINUED....
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