Wally the Walrus
WALLY THE WALRUS always sat alone on the beach. Every once in a while, Wally would wander over to the other walruses, just to see what they were up to. The others would usually sit in a group, but sometimes the other walruses would lie upon the rocks, basking in the glorious sun, getting themselves a nice tan. Sometimes the other walruses would YELP at Wally, but mostly, they would ignore him.
Wally had never been very good at smiling. He was born with a permanent frown on his face, and he could not help it. He was just made that way, and that was what his face looked like. Every time Wally tried to smile, he had to strain the muscles in his face so hard that he would feel like he had been lifting weights with his cheek muscles all day long.
A fish or two might fill Wally’s stomach throughout the day, but his favorite thing to gobble up was clams. Wally had no idea exactly how many clams he could eat at once, because every time he tried to keep track, he would lose count. Once, he had gotten all the way up to 200 clams, before his stomach felt like it was about to explode. Wally liked to keep all of the clams for himself. The last time one of the other walruses tried to snag one of Wally’s clams from him, Wally snorted and jumped and danced around, slapping his flippers right into the nose of the other walrus.
* * *
Saturday was a sunny day, and the other walruses were lying around on the rocks, working on their sun tans. With no one else around, Wally walked around to the other side of the cove, and found a treasure trove of beautiful, plump clams. There were so many clams, that Wally could not figure out how he could bring them all back to his little hideout and enjoy a private feast. At first, Wally tried to gather up all of the clams with his flippers, but they just fell through, one at a time. Then he tried to use an old fisherman’s net he had found on the beach, but it had so many holes in it that the clams just kept tumbling out.
Then, Wally had a grand idea. He wandered over to all of the other walruses lying in the sun on the rocks. Wally sat up high on his butt, clapped his front flippers enthusiastically, and unleashed the loudest bark of his life. AAARRRRKKK! Wally barked so loud, that some of the rocks from the surrounding cliffs broke loose and pounced down onto the sand, crashing into the water.
Once the other walruses started paying attention, Wally motioned with his flipper for everyone to follow him around the corner, as he wanted to show them something. The other walruses were a bit confused at first, but they still followed Wally because they were curious. As soon as they all got around the corner, Wally stuck his snout high up in the air, and pointed with his left flipper, straight toward the glorious mountain of wet clams spread out before them.
All of the walruses danced and slapped high-fives with their flippers, and snorted and barked at each other. With Wally leading the way, the whole gang trotted over to the mountain of clams and enjoyed a great big feast with Wally. Wally was smiling now, as one of the other walruses placed a flipper onto his back and patted him gently.
Wally realized that with a loyal group of friends, anything was possible.
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