The Adventures of Danny the Cork Man

Once upon a time, there was a little guy called Cork Danny.  He was made of cork.  His body, his hands, and his feet were cork.  His arms, and legs were matchsticks.  He was a very happy little cork person.  The reason was he didn’t have a reason not to be happy!  He lived in a house by a small creek, in a tree.  See, the house was originally built for humming birds and that’s why it was in a tree.  The humming birds weren’t very comfortable in the house so Cork Danny asked if he could move in, so he did.

He had a better view of the creek than anyone who lived there.  He could see the creek and the hills, and in the distance on clear, sunny, cloudless days he could see the city!

Danny had a mini steamboat, which was made of tin.  He was very proud of it.  All he had to do to start it was to light the candle under a small water tank.  The water would get hot and turn into steam, which would turn a propeller and make the boat go.  When he wanted the boat to stop he just had to pull the candle out from under the water tank.  One day, he ran out of candles; this meant the next day he had to go to the city to get new ones.  The next morning he set his alarm clock to make sure he woke up early.  That morning it looked like a storm was coming, but Cork Danny didn’t pay much attention because he was busy starting the boat.  After he drank his hot chocolate, (he loved hot chocolate in the morning) he said goodbye to his friend Frog Gabby and he took off.

Now this creek wasn’t just an ordinary creek.  It originated of hot springs a couple miles to the east.  Because of the warm water, the creek had lots of vegetation.  The plants that had flowers were always in bloom.  The prettiest plants were the water lilies.  Of course, like the other plants, they were always in bloom, which was very unusual because they originated from Egypt in the Nile River! 

 Cork Danny loved water lilies. He loved to climb in them and just float on them, he also liked to just sit in them enjoying the sunshine and listening to Frog Gabby’s gossip.

Finally, the little tin boat started, and slowly left the little dock.  About a minute later the boat was sailing smoothly on the main stream and making a cheerful, “poof, poof” sound.  Some smoke was making its way out of the chimney.  Suddenly the boat was caught in a gust of wind and started going faster!  The clouds became fearfully dark, and huge raindrops started pelting the little tin boat with Cork Danny on it.  All of the sudden, the rain started to fall and it was at this moment that Cork Danny realized he should have never left.  He was angry at himself for not checking the weather before he left home.  It was very dangerous to be out on a river while it was raining.  By now it was too late to turn back, so Cork Danny turned to steer the boat to the right shore that happened to be the closer to the city.  Then all of the sudden a large wave came out of nowhere, it swept Cork Danny off the boat.  The boat quickly disappeared into the dark water.