The Crocodile Who Lost His Glasses

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The Crocodile Who Lost His Glasses - book excerpt

Once upon a time, there was a crocodile called Cranberry who lived in a little house on the bank of a river in Africa.

One morning, Cranberry woke up but could not find his glasses anywhere. He searched and searched everywhere, but still could not find them.

He looked under the bed, under his pillow. He looked in the bathroom, behind the sofa in the living room and he looked in all the cupboards in the kitchen.

He even looked in the smelly rubbish bin, holding his long nose as he rummaged through the potato peelings, fish heads and very stinky old cheese. But he still could not find his glasses.

‘I had better go and look for them,’ he thought.

Off he set along the riverbank, looking from side to side in case he had dropped his glasses somewhere. Then he met Horace the Hippo.

‘Hello, Horace,’ he called.

‘Hello, Cranberry,’ said Horace. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’m looking for them.’

‘Well, where did you lose them?’

‘IfI knew that, they wouldn’t be lost, would they?’ Cranberry answered.

‘No, I suppose not,’ Horace said, and he waddled down to the river to look for some fresh river grass to eat. Horace was very, very good at eating.

Silly hippo, thought Cranberry and carried on walking.

Harry the Laughing Hyena was standing by a tree, laughing and giggling to himself as usual.

‘Hello, Harry,’ said Cranberry.

‘Oh, hello, Cranberry,’ said Harry, ‘what are you doing out here?’

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’m trying to find them.’

‘Well, when you find them, you’ll be able to look for them, won’t you?’ said Harry and he ran off, laughing crazily at his own silly joke.

Silly hyena, thought Cranberry.

Next, Cranberry met Alan the Anteater.

‘You’ve lost your glasses?’ Alan said. ‘Where?

‘I don’t know.’ Cranberry answered.

‘OK, but when you find them, why don’t you come with me and look for ants? Lovely, delicious ants, you will love them as they wriggle around in your tummy.’

‘No, thank you, Alan, I don’t think I’d like ants to eat.’

‘Won’t like ants? How can anybody not like ants?’ Alan the Anteater said as he trundled away, long nose on the ground, looking for his delicious ants, muttering, ‘How can anybody not like ants, how can anybody not like ants?’

Silly anteater, thought Cranberry.

‘Who’s that?’ asked Ronald the Rhino, peering and squinting at Cranberry as rhinoceroses have very poor eyesight.

‘It’s me, Cranberry the Crocodile,’

‘Cranberry? What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’m looking for them.’

‘Glasses? What do you need glasses for?’ Ronald asked.

‘I need them to find my food. To catch fish.’

‘I don’t need glasses to find my food, so why do you?’ Ronald asked, puzzled as to why anybody needed glasses to find food.

‘Ronald, you eat grass,’ Cranberry answered, and he lifted his head to look around. All he could see for miles around was grassland in every direction. ‘Grass is everywhere,’ he said, ‘all around you. You don’t need to look for it because it’s already there.’

‘Oh, I suppose so,’ Ronald mumbled and he walked away, munching on another mouthful of fresh grass. ‘Glasses,’ he muttered, ‘glasses, who needs glasses?’

Silly rhinoceros, thought Cranberry.

Geoffrey the Giraffe was no help, either. He was standing by a tall acacia tree, eating the fresh green leaves at the top.

‘Hello, Geoffrey!’ Cranberry shouted.

Geoffrey looked down to see Cranberry standing at the foot of the tree.

‘Oh, it’s you, Cranberry. What are you doing so far from the river?’

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’m looking for them.’

‘They are not up here. Why would you think your glasses could be here at the top of a tree?’

‘No, I just wondered if you had seen them, that’s all.’

‘No, no glasses up here.’

Silly giraffe, thought Cranberry.

Elsa the Elephant was standing in a dust bowl, picking up dust with her trunk and throwing it over her back as a sunscreen.

‘Oh, hello, Cranberry,’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’m looking for them.’

‘Lost your glasses?’ Elsa said, throwing some more dust over her back. The dust got into Cranberry’s nose and he sneezed, and his false teeth shot out from his mouth.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said Elsa. She picked up his false teeth with her trunk and, after wiping them clean on some grass, handed them back to Cranberry. ‘What sharp teeth you have.’

‘Thank you, but that doesn’t help find my glasses, does it?’

Elsa looked around. ‘No, sorry, I can’t see them,’ she said. ‘Anyway, I’m going down to the pool to wallow in some mud. Do you want to come with me?’

‘No, I’m not going to find my glasses in a mud pool, am I?’

‘No, I suppose not,’ Elsa said and trundled off down to the mud pool.

Silly elephant, Cranberry said, but he was really very fond of Elsa the Elephant.

Cranberry walked on further, passing under another tall tree.

‘Hello Cranberry,’ he heard somebody call to him. He looked up and saw Lily the Leopard, lying stretched out along a branch of the tree, her long tail slowly swinging to and fro.

‘Oh, hello, Lily,’ Cranberry said peering up at her.

‘What are you doing so far from the river?’ Lily asked.

‘I’ve lost my glasses and I’ve been looking all over for them.’

‘Your glasses? They’re there!’

‘Where?’ exclaimed Cranberry, looking around.

‘There. On top of your head.’

Cranberry felt around the top of his head with his claws and sure enough, there were his glasses! He pulled them down onto his nose and at last he could see clearly.

‘Oh, thank you, Lily,’ he said, ‘thank you.’