It was quite a windy day at Ponderings Pond and Delilah Duck was once again out hunting. However, this time she was not looking for food, but little trinkets to make her duck house just a little stronger and better. She collected strings, papers, twigs and even bottle caps to fix up her home.

As the wind whipped things around, she saw something shiny fly by. Delilah darted after it, and caught it!

She did not know what it was, but she thought this shiny strip of whatever it was would look very nice on her roof. It might even push some of the rays of the sun away from her house, making it nice and cool for the summer months.

Now, Delilah did not know it, but Snake Joe was right behind her when she caught the shiny thing. Joe also like the shiny thing and wanted to have it. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he thought that he had to have the shiny thing.

Slowly, very slowly, Joe coiled up, all the time looking at the shiny thing in Delilah’s beak. Then, all of a sudden, he zipped forward, leaping up just enough to snatch the shiny thing out of Delilah’s beak.

“Squack! Thief! Thief! Give me my shiny thing back! Thief! Thief!,” quacked Delilah.

Joe just chuckled and darted away. As he zipped around a rock, he met Snake Jake.

Now Jake had heard Delilah shouting at Joe, so he knew that the shiny thing in Joe’s mouth did not belong to him.

“Hey Joe, give back that shiny thing to Delilah! Sssssss,” said Jake.

“Heh!” said Joe and slithered faster.

Jake caught up with Joe and tried to take the shiny thing away from him and give it back to Delilah.

He pulled and tugged, and tugged and pulled, but Joe would not let go. Jake was afraid the the shiny thing would tear, so he let go of it and Joe zipped away.

Jake darted off to find help. He found Seymour the giraffe. Seymour, being very tall, looked around and found Freddy Frog. Seymour quickly thought of a plan and told Freddy.

Seymour then lifted his head high and saw Joe slithering toward a shed.

“He’s heading toward that shed, Freddy. Let’s go,” said Seymour, and they both rushed off. Seymour hid behind a bush while Freddy hid in a woodpile.

Joe had no idea was happening. He just wanted to get away with the shiny thing, and get away fast.

He zipped past a fence and as he started past the shed Seymour stuck his head down and yelled, “Boo!” Joe was so scared he just about rolled over on his side and his mouth opened wide. Just then, Freddy hopped out from hiding and took the shiny thing away from Joe.

“Hey! That’s my shiny thing,” said Joe.

“Oh no it’s not,” said Seymour. “It belongs to Delilah, and you know it.”

Freddy hopped away as fast as he could and found Delilah.

“Squack! Freddy! You have rescued my shiny thing. You are my hero,” Delilah said.

“Hey! Gung! I had help. Lots of help,” said Freddy.

“Really?” asked Delilah.

“Gung! Yes indeed. Jake told Seymour what happened and Seymour figured out a plan and found me,” said Freddy.

“Well then, I thank each one of you,” said Delilah.

In the meantime Seymour, who is an official judge of Ponderings Pond, was trying to talk some sense to Joe.

“Joe, why did you do that?” asked Seymour.

“I like shiny things,” said Joe.

“Well, that is no reason to steal. Keep on stealing, and you will find yourself in court!” Seymour answered.

Then Seymour asked Joe, “You would not want anyone to steal from you, would you?”

“They have before,” grumbled Joe.

“Not Delilah,” said Seymour.

“No, not Delilah,” said Joe.

“And that should not matter anyway,” said Seymour. “Don’t be evil because others are evil.”

Joe did not want to hear anymore, so he did not say anymore, and just crawled away.

What do you think Joe should have done?