Pip and the White-Striped Pebble

Pip the penguin chick kept his favourite pebble beside his sleeping hollow. It was smooth and grey, with one white stripe. Each morning, he rubbed the stripe with his flipper before going out to play.

His friend Nella was making a pebble path outside. She wanted it to reach from their flat rock to the water. Pip's mother sat nearby, resting in the pale sunshine.

Pip went to look for a long stone. When he returned, his striped pebble was in Nella's path.

“That's mine!” Pip cried.

“It fits right here,” Nella said. “I wanted you to see it.”

Pip swept his flipper across the path. Pebbles rolled over the rock. He grabbed his striped pebble and held it against his tummy.

Nella stood very still. “I worked on that all morning.”