Free Mudpoo and the Magic Tree Stump by Peter Klein Page B

beautiful tree. She returned to find all that was left was a tangled mess of limbs, leaves and logs, and a huge tree stump. 
    Grumblegoo walked slowly towards what was left of her tree, sat down on the stump and for the first time in her life, she cried.

I t was the next day. 
    All of the curious bush creatures were peering out of their hidey-holes towards the shattered, fallen tree. Grumblegoo sat bleary-eyed and sad. She hadn’t moved all night. Foggerty, the green tree frog, gently hopped over to Grumblegoo and landed on her lap. He looked up to see the swollen red eyes of his friend and the dull, sad look on her face. She’d been crying all night. 
    â€œI’ve let everyone down,” murmured Grumblegoo, “especially my tree; it’s my job to protect the forest.” 
    Grumblegoo looked miserable as she sat on the tree stump. 
    â€œI wish I could always protect this forest and all its plants and creatures forever, so nothing like this could ever happen again.”
    Grumblegoo was so miserable that she hardly noticed the ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and the shiny swirling dust that flew all around her. 
    Foggerty, who could only say, “CROAK” and “RIBBIT” and make other frog sounds, knew his friend was sad. He sat up on the tree stump, wishing there was something he could do, but he was only a little frog!
    â€˜I wish I was the world’s smartest frog and that I could talk,’ thought Foggerty sadly. 
    Then it happened again . . .the tree stump made a kind of ‘SWOOSHING’ sound and Foggerty was covered in a shiny, swirling dust. 
    Startled, Grumblegoo leapt to her feet. It was all over in a second. 
    â€œWhat was that?” exclaimed Grumblegoo, as she looked at poor, surprised Foggerty. 
    â€œWhat was that?” repeated Foggerty as he looked back at Grumblegoo.
    â€œYou . . . you . . . you . . . can talk!” yelped Grumblegoo, “You can talk!” she repeated, looking dumbfounded. 
    â€œHow . . . ?” 
    â€œI wished I was the smartest frog in the world and that I could talk,” replied Foggerty “and there was a swirling, swooshing sound from the tree stump and then it just happened!” 
    â€œLet me see,” asked Grumblegoo, happily surprised, “I’ll test you with a question.” 
    â€œGo ahead,” replied Foggerty. 
    â€œWho are you and where do we live?” asked Grumblegoo, who was still a little stunned and couldn’t think of anything really clever to ask. 
    â€œI am Foggerty Frog, otherwise known as a green tree frog,” replied Foggerty, “and my scientific name is Litoria caerulea and we live in ‘Iluka Nature Reserve’, which is a World Heritage area in New South Wales, Australia.” 
    Suddenly, Grumblegoo stopped being sad and laughed and laughed and as she laughed, her feathers fluffed up and her red eyes glowed.

    â€œMy word you are one smart frog, even if I don’t understand everything you say, but better than that, we have ourselves a ‘MAGIC TREE STUMP’ ” beamed Grumblegoo. 
    â€œWe must keep this our secret,” Grumblegoo told Foggerty, and they both agreed, for now, not to tell anyone. 
    Grumblegoo walked with a little skip in her step down to the Clarence River to her favourite hidey-hole to have a well earned sleep. Though she felt sad that her magnificent Karri tree was cut down, she felt sure that if she could understand how the Magic Tree Stump worked its magic, it might prove to be very useful one day. 
    That day was much closer than she ever imagined.

A nyone who has read ‘THE true ADVENTURES OF MUDPOO‘ would understand how excited Mudpoo and Harry were when Captain Pete told them they were going on a camping trip to Iluka (in Bundjalung National Park). They were going to meet up with their old friend Liz and another great old friend; Rod the bush poet and his