Foggerty, the green tree frog, could not be stopped. He chatted to Grumblegoo every day and seemed to be able to talk, at length, about almost anything.
“You see, we frogs are amphibians and you’ll find us on all continents on earth, except for Antarctica.”
“I see,” replied Grumblegoo, pretending to be interested.
Foggerty went on, “Frogs were the first creatures without a backbone to adapt to life on land.”
“You don’t say,” replied Grumblegoo, who tried not to appear rude.
Grumblegoo loved chatting to Foggerty Frog, but there were times when she wished he wasn’t quite so smart. It seemed he was getting smarter every day and couldn’t wait to tell Grumblegoo every new fact he learnt, as soon as he learnt it.
Grumblegoo had been busy thinking, ‘I wonder how the Magic Tree Stump really works?’ She had tried to make other wishes, but nothing unusual happened. She decided to watch the Magic Tree Stump every day until she discovered its secret.
One day, Foggerty Frog declared that he was going to visit the children at the Iluka School. He had heard that this was a good place to learn more about the world.
“Be careful,” warned Grumblegoo.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, I’ve heard the children there are very clever and friendly,” he replied and away he hopped.
Grumblegoo sat quietly for a long time, closely watching the Magic Tree Stump. All of a sudden, she spotted something that really surprised her. This is what she saw.
Andrenna Ant was walking across the Magic Tree Stump, carrying a tiny bread crumb, “I wish I was a hundred times stronger,” thought Andrenna Ant to herself, then suddenly, there was a ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and some shiny dust and Andrenna Ant was strong enough to carry a whole apple core on her own!
“Well WIGGLEMY- WHISKERS,” whispered Grumblegoo to herself, “how bizarre!”
Grumblegoo decided she’d try an experiment to discover how the Magic Tree Stump really worked.
She sat on the tree stump and declared in a loud Grumblegoo voice, “I wish for an omelette!”. Nothing happened.
“I wish for a huge plate of lamingtons,” she demanded and still, nothing happened.
“I wish for a vegemite and cheese sandwich,” she said rather hopefully, but still, nothing happened.
“I wish for a pair of silky pyjamas, with pink cotton socks,” she said in a silly voice, just in case it worked, but nothing happened.
Grumblegoo was just about to give up for the day when Kev, the sulfurcrested cockatoo, came by and happened to land on the Magic Tree Stump.
“I wish you could talk!” declared Grumblegoo, but again, nothing happened.
Grumblegoo looked at Kev miserably.
Kev, the sulfur-crested cockatoo then squawked, “I wish I could talk,” repeating Grumblegoo’s words, as most cockatoo’s do.
Suddenly there was a ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and some shiny swirling dust and a stunned Kev croaked in a scratchy, cocky voice; “G’day Grumblegoo!”
“You... you...can talk!” Grumblegoo leapt up into the air and danced an Irish jig.
“Yippee . . . ” she cried, “what did you think about?”
“Well bust-my-billy Grumblegoo, I just thought, ‘I wish I could talk’ and . . . WHAM, here I am!”
“I think I’m beginning to see,” replied Grumblegoo looking rather pleased.
“Great-gathering-goannas, can you explain to ME what is going on?” squawked Kev.
“It’s the Magic Tree Stump! It grants each creature only one opportunity to wish and you have to be quick. You’re only allowed a few seconds to wish for all the things you want! I think that’s how it works?” declared Grumblegoo.
Grumblegoo decided to test her theory further. She thought they might coax Clancy the koala down from her gum tree, by placing a huge branch of sweet juicy Eucalyptus leaves on the Magic Tree Stump.
Ever so slowly, Clancy wobbled down to the Magic Tree Stump. Grumblegoo and Kev stood very still and watched. Sure enough, there was a ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and Clancy was covered in a shiny, swirling dust.
Grumblegoo and Kev held their breath and waited to see what might happen.
“What are you staring at?” snapped Clancy.
Grumblegoo and Kev cheered, “It worked! Yahoo!”
“Don’t bust your boiler,” said Clancy, “I’m going back up to my tree and I’m never coming down.”
“Why ever not?” asked Grumblegoo.
“Because I wished I could talk and I wished for a tree that never ran out of gum leaves,” replied Clancy.
“Well I’ll be blowed,” muttered Grumblegoo, “it appears Clancy managed to think of everything she wanted!”
“STREUTH! Lucky old Clancy,” squawked Kev.
Clancy had returned high into her tree and happily munched away on her never-ending supply of gum leaves, like nothing magical at all had just happened.
One evening, Grumblegoo found Sally, the green tree snake, asleep on the Magic Tree Stump and like many of the other forest animals now, Sally was able to talk.
“What did you wish for?” inquired Grumblegoo.
“Oh, I just wished everyone would like me for who I am,” she replied. Grumblegoo understood Sally’s wish really well (for reasons you can guess).
She invited Sally to sleep on the Magic Tree Stump to guard it against unfriendly strangers and to this, she happily agreed. Grumblegoo figured that by asking Sally to guard the Magic Tree Stump, she could do an important job, as well as make some new friends, all at the same time!
Percy, the ringtail possum, stumbled across the Magic Tree Stump and soon he was getting his wish; a wonderful sleep, hanging by his tail. Grumblegoo asked him to hang around to help Sally and this made him feel very important.
Foggerty returned from visiting the children at the Iluka school and was pleased to discover that Grumblegoo had made several new friends.
He told, Kev, Sally, Percy and Grumblegoo (Clancy was too busy eating) about his adventures. Foggerty told them how he became the Iluka Primary School’s science project. They measured and weighed him and watched him eat and jump. Best of all, he was able to watch the students use something called ‘the internet’, so he learnt so much more about the world.
“We live in a littoral rainforest,” croaked Foggerty.
“Littoral rainforest?” repeated Grumblegoo, taken aback by Foggerty’s new found knowledge.
“A littoral rainforest is a subtropical forest that grows in nutrient-rich, sandy soils near the sea,” beamed Foggerty, who indeed felt that he really was the smartest frog in the world.
“Did you know,” continued Foggerty, “that rainforests cover only 0.3 percent of Australia and yet they contain about half of Australia’s plant families and about one third of Australia’s mammal and bird species?”
“Great story,” said Grumblegoo who had never quite understood percentages and fractions, “but I’ve got to go fishing.”
“I’ve got sleeping to catch up on,” murmured Percy.
“Slithering to do,” added Sally.
“BELCHING BUNYIPS!” cried Kev, “Is that the time? Got to fly!”
“I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow?” said Foggerty, looking hopeful and proud as his friends quickly disappeared into the forest.
Grumblegoo thought carefully as she sat fishing in the Clarence River. She felt they should have stayed and listened to Foggerty. After all, wasn’t knowledge something to be proud of? She felt sure that everythingFoggerty learnt at school could be very important and might one day prove to be useful.
“Next time,” she murmured to herself, “I will ask everyone to listen and learn something from Foggerty.”
Grumblegoo would soon be proven right. There was trouble brewing just around the corner and Foggerty’s knowledge would prove to be very important indeed.