I Wish I Were..!

Freddy frog and Steppy sparrow lived in a meadow. They were very good friends. They often roamed and played together in the grassy fields.

- Kusum Agarwal

They did not know much about each other, or how different they were from each other.

One day, they decided to run a race just for fun.

"Whoever reaches that meadow first will be the winner," Steppy said, pointing to a grassy field that lay beyond the faraway mountain.

"Done," Freddy agreed and the race began.

Steppy took off and started flying swiftly, flapping her wings. Freddy had never seen her fly. He was amazed. He also tried to lift himself in the air and fly, but he could not.

Giving up, he used his strong legs, as usual, and started jumping across the field, leaping over anything that seemed to block his way. They were moving on when they came across a lake, unaware of each other's progress.

Freddy jumped into the water at once. He started swimming happily with the help of his webbed feet. Steppy saw him swimming, and she was astonished. She had never seen Freddy swim before. She also wanted to swim.

She flew down to the lake and tried to swim, but she could not. Her feathers got wet and made her body heavy. Coming out of the lake, she flapped her wings, dried them, and started flying again.