Dazel loved to collect rocks, shells and other underwater baubles.

She would spend hours pecking at the pond surface or poking her beak around the bank of the lake, where Delma lived, looking for something fascinating to collect.

She would carefully put them behind a trio of jagged rocks at the far edge of the pond.

She would fawn and preen over her collectables but would never let anyone else come close to them.

Ribbit the frog and his frog cousins would always want to see what Dazel had collected every day.

She would readily show it to them but always with strict instructions, “Please don’t touch them. You can just look!”

One day Din Din came up to Dazel when she was scouting around the lake.

“Hi, Dazel! I needed a favour from you,” Din Din said panting from the long trek.

“Hi, Din Din. Feast your eyes on what I found today, a beautiful group of claret coloured rocks. See how they shine like gems,” said Dazel excitedly.

“Ooooh! These are nice!” Din Din agreed. “Actually, I wanted to ask you if you could lend me your collection of shells. My younger brother is participating in a collage making contest and he’s short of a few shells. I told him you have a great collection of oyster shells. The ones he was able to find are broken at the edges.”

Dazel was silent for a moment. “Ummm... Din Din, I’ll have to look for them and I’ll get back to you,” Dazel replied.

Soon the sun began its journey down the horizon and just before the friends parted, Dazel lovingly collected her precious claret hued rocks and set off home.

Din Din called out to her, “Don’t forget to bring the shells tomorrow, Dazel!”

Dazel flapped her wings bidding adieu.

As she flew towards her pond, with her rocks caught safely in her beak, she thought, “Din Din’s brother is so young and will not be able to take good care of my shells. I have gathered them with so much effort and if he loses them all my hard work will go to waste.”

As Dazel swooped down to the rocks where she stored all her precious things, she spotted her collection of shells.

There were many of them, and each had a different shape, texture and colour.

“I can’t share these with anyone. They’re too dear to me!” Dazel said with a shake of her head.

“But what am I going to tell Din Din? Should I make an excuse or should I tell him the truth?”

With these thoughts, Dazel fell asleep.

The next morning she woke up to the sounds of her neighbouring frog family croaking away excitedly.

Dazel swam up to the lily pad to see what the frog family was so keyed up about.

“Good morning! What’s the commotion about?” Dazel asked her frog friends.

“Good morning, Dazel,” replied the frogs in unison. “I had participated in the Annual Croaking Contest and I won the first prize - a bag full of my favourite fly candy,” replied Ribbit, the youngest of the frog family, excitedly. “I came home from the contest late last night and didn’t open the candy bag because I wanted to share my prize with all my family and friends in the morning. Come and have one, Dazel!” exclaimed Ribbit eagerly.

Dazel congratulated young Ribbit and politely refused the candy.

She then swam away to the far end of her pond near the three jagged rocks where she hid all her prized possessions.

As she gazed at her beloved items she could hear the frogs laughing merrily in the background.

“Here Lippy, come and have a few more fly candy. Here’s a mint flavoured one - your favourite!” Dazel heard Ribbit yell to his elder sister.

As she heard their jibes and chatter, Dazel wondered if she could be as generous as them. “Why do I have such a small heart? Why am I unable to be generous enough to share with my friends? If I had been in Ribbit’s place I would have stashed my goodies away and had them alone,” Dazel thought to herself.

As she gazed at the frog family she saw how a simple act of sharing had brought them closer to one another and had added to the joy of the occasion.

Suddenly, she made up her mind. Hastily she collected her shells and flew to the Fruit Park where Din Din’s family lived.

Din Din was helping his brother put together his collage.

The collage was a scenery of a beach and the two dinosaurs were carefully sticking various materials onto the bark of the tree on which they had made the collage.

Dazel swooped down and laid down the shells before Din Din.

“Hello, Dazel! So nice of you to bring the shells all the way here,” Din Din exclaimed delightedly.

His brother also kept on repeating his thankfulness.

Dazel brushed aside the praise but the truth was that she felt wonderful because she had shared her things. She helped the two dinosaur brothers complete the collage by pasting her precious shells.

“I will be sure to remove the shells and return them to you after the contest results are announced, Dazel,” Din Din’s brother promised.

Soon Din Din’s mother came out of the cave with a delicious snack of fruit salad and papaya juice.

She also lauded Dazel’s generosity.

Later, when the collage was complete and Din Din and Dazel walked down to the lake to meet Delma, Din Din said, “Dazel, thank you! Today you proved that you are my best friend. I know you really value your possessions and giving the shells must have been a tough decision for you to make.”

Dazel smiled, “Sharing things increases the love between us. And after all, relationships are more precious than things. What good are possessions if you can’t share them!”

And when she said this, Dazel really meant it!

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