Pasha Meets a Quokka

Pasha the elephant was in the library. He was looking for a book called How to Get a PhD. He squeezed himself between the shelves.

"Oooof!" he said, "Nearly got stuck there." He swung his trunk to the topmost shelf to pick up a book. Then he heard the oddest noise. A sort of thump-thump. Whatever could it be?

Suddenly something small and tiny squeezed between Pasha's big legs. "Oops, sorry about that," said the tiny creature. It looked like a rat, but it hopped like a rabbit.

Thump, thump, went the animal as it tried to hop up to the topmost shelf. "I wonder if you could reach up and grab that book for me?" said the quokka (for that's what the creature was called). "I'm a little short handed, you see."

So Pasha obliged. The grateful quokka introduced himself. "I'm Kip," he said.

"How do you do, Kip," said Pasha politely.

"It must be nice to be so large...very useful thing your trunk."

Pasha felt pleased. Perhaps there were advantages to being, well, a bit large.

"You must come over to my place, some time," said Kip. "I live on Rottnest Island - the only place in the world where you'll find quokkas like me."

So Pasha agreed to spend a weekend with Kip.

"Oh, and look, here's that book you were looking for," exclaimed Kip. For right on the bottom-most shelf, far below an elephant's eye, was How to Get a PhD.