“Oh, Lumpy…why don’t you try harder to sing like the other goslings of your flock?” asked Teacher Hrumph. “You don’t seem to want to learn.”

“Mr. Gander Hrumph, I’m trying real hard…I am…I really am. It just seems I can’t get louder than a squeaky h-o-n-n-n-k.” Lumpy replied.

“Well, you better learn soon. It won’t be too long before you get more and bigger feathers on your wings; and without a good goosy H-O-N-N-N-K, you could be left behind!” added Teacher Hrumph.

Poor Little Lumpy; no matter how hard she tried, she could only let out her squeaky h-o-n-n-n-k.

“I know!” said Lumpy, as she slapped her wing onto the water, “I’ll get Hope and Charity to help me practice!” And with that realization, Little Lumpy swam off to find her cygnet friends.

“Hope…Charity…come out, come out…wherever you are!” Little Lumpy called to her friends.

“Here we are, Lumpy! Whatever are you up to?” the two cygnets chimed in harmony

.

“Oh, thank goodness I found you H and C! I need your help.” moaned Lumpy. And she went on to explain the problem she had with her squeaky h-o-n-n-n-k.

“Well, good friend, you’ve come to the right place,” exclaimed Hope. “as you can hear, I have a deeper h-r-o-n-n-n-k than either you or Charity.”

“Dear me…and I have a higher h-e-o-n-n-n-k than either of you” said Charity.

“Ok, Cygs…you’ll help me, then?” asked Lumpy.

“First, girl…you’ll have to get rid of the squeak. Have you tried chompin’ on some castor leaves? They say the oil in the leaves do wonders for what ails you” Hope said.

“Ooooooh! Yuck! Casss-tor leaves,” moaned Lumpy. “I don’t think I want to try that! Don’t you have a better suggestion?”

“Well…have you tried gargling with slime water?” Asked Charity, with a devilish laugh.

“Awww, c’mon you two. I thought you were gonna help me.” Lumpy replied with down-cast eyes.

“We were just teasing you, Lumpy. Sure we want to help. Maybe if we all practiced h-o-n-k-i-n-g together it would help you.” Hope offered while patting Lumpy with one wing.

“Let’s try singing the ‘H-O-N-K, H-O-N-K Song’ together” Charity said.

“H-r-o-n-n-n-k/h-o-n-n-n-k/h-e-o-n-n-n-k,” they harmonized.

“Honk, honk, ain’t it great to be friendly

Honk Honk, ain’t it great to be friendly

Twiddlin’ and twaddlin’ all day long

Honk, honk, ain’t it great to be friendly”

“Hey, that was pretty neat.” Lumpy said in excitement. “I sounded pretty good singing with the two of you.”

Soon Little Lumpy, Hope, and Charity were singing all over the lake, and others gathered to listen to the trio; among them Teacher Hrumph, who swam forward and said to Lumpy, “Well, little girl, I think you’re making progress with your singing. You’ll be a great H-O-N-N-N-Ker sooner than I thought.”

With a blush, Lumpy thanked him, adding “Just proves you can do lotta things with the help of good friends.”

Original © Jackie (Micke) Jinks, May 2004