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| (The Hummingbird: Photo by Daniel Borman) |
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Word began to spread to those who frequented the watering hole of Little Hum's victory. The tortoise and the hawk gasped in disbelieve when the fox told them of this curious feat.
"I do not understand how someone so small could drink more water than the water-buffalo himself!" the hawk said while shaking his head.
"I saaaaaay weeee maaaake Littttttle Huuuum doooo it agaaaaaain, sooooo thaaaaat I caaaaan seeee thiiiis wiiiiith myyyy owwwwwn eyyyyyes," the tortoise mumbled.
"Yes! Great idea! But, who should do it?" the fox questioned?
"I will," said the hippopotamus proudly. "Who could ever drink more water than someone who lives most of his life in the water and has a belly far larger than even the water buffalo. There is no possible way Little Hum could beat me!"
When Hippo's challenge reached the ears of Little Hum, he immediately accepted. Little Hum waited until just before the tide would rise and then made his grand arrival at the watering hole.
"So, my Dear Hippo, I hear that you would like to challenge me to a water drinking contest! Even with your enormous belly, I will still be the winner here," Little Hum said boastfully. "Go on. You first!"
Hippo wattled over to the water and stuck in his snout and then started draining the water at an alarming rate! The water level was actually really going down! Little Hum started to get nervous.
"Come on high tide. Come on high tide," Little Hum thoughtfully pleaded.
"Yes!" He thought! The tide started coming in and the water started to rise!
"Dear Hippo, I thought that the challenge was to drink as much water as you could! Not drink and then spit it out!" Little Hum laughed at him!
"My turn!" Little Hum said. He once more stuck his bill into the water just in time for the low tide. The water began to recede and his audience was astounded!
Authors Note: This is a story of what happened after The Humming Bird and the Caraboa. In the original story, the hummingbird used the high and low tide of the watering hole to trick the caraboa into thinking that he can drink more water than him. I wanted to tell the story of this happening again, only this time with an audience to watch!
Jordan, this was a great story. I must tell you that I have an affinity for hummingbirds. I have feeders at my home in the country and enjoy sitting out back in the mornings and evenings with a cup of coffee and watch and listen to the little buggers.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, I was in love with your story before I even read it. The picture of the hummingbird that you have posted is beautiful and vibrant. I think this story is pretty funny in the fact that you could easily see a hummingbird having a big ego and feeling like he had so much to prove because of his small size. I really enjoyed the fact that the hummingbird didn't really beat the hippo, but used his smarts to trick the animals watching, as well as the hippo.
Oh, and I almost forgot, I lOVED the way you had the tortoise talking so sloooooooowwwww. That really added to the imagery of the story. You definitely knew it was a turtle talking. lol
This was an excellent choice for a storytelling post. I look forward to more stories from you!
I found this story very entertaining! What a tricky little bird! I really liked that your story had a lot of dialogue so that most of the characterization came from what the different animals said, like how I could tell that that the Hum was pretty arrogant with the way he spoke to the hippo. Great Work!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a cute story! Little Hum just seems like the most precious character, even if he is a little witty and cunning. Also, the picture of the hummingbird that you selected is absolutely beautiful! Even though I previously mentioned that I like it when tricksters get what they deserve, I find it very entertaining when they use their smarts for good. Something like tricking the hippo into actually drinking a lot of water because of the rising tide while making it look like he drinks a lot of water because of the falling tide is pretty harmless and brilliant. Good job!
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