HOW THE LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN AND GANNET BECAME FRIENDS

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1953, Page 54

HOW THE LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN AND GANNET BECAME FRIENDS Ages ago when the world was young, the little blue penguin used to live on land and eat worms like the kiwi. One day, as a penguin was waddling along near the shore to get some sea air, she found a gannet who was in distress. ‘What brings you over here away from your friends?’ asked the cheerful penguin. ‘I have hurt my wing and cannot fly back to my friends,’ replied the gannet, ‘and to make matters worse I have an egg, but my wing hurts me so much that I cannot sit on it.’ ‘Let me sit on the egg for you,’ said the little blue penguin. And she did. After she had stayed there for many days, a little gannet hatched out. The mother gannet's wing became better, and she swam around in the sea and brought fish for the youngster to eat. The penguin was invited to taste the fish that the gannet caught every day, but the penguin, who had never tasted such a thing before, would not eat it at first. After a time she was persuaded to eat a little, and, as she liked it so much, decided to eat as much as the gannet would bring her. One day, the gannet said, ‘I am going back to live with my friends on those big rocks in the ocean over there, and shall take my young one with me, for as you can see, it can fly now. But, before I go, I will teach you how to swim and catch fish.’ The penguin liked her new way of living so much that she no longer spends her time on the land looking for worms, but swims happily in the sea and searches for fish. The gannet will never forget the good turn that the penguin did her, and they will always be close friends.