A small brown person was looking at him from the bank. He had brown skin, brown eyes, brown freckles and brown hair. If it hadn't been for his green waistcoat and his large webbed feet, Dipper might not even have noticed him sitting on the crisp dry mud on the edge of Frogbit Pond. "Good day for a plunge," Dipper called from his leaf. The small brown person on the bank shook his head. "You don't want a splash?" Dipper enquired. "You got the feet for it." The small person shook his head again. Dipper slid off his leaf and swam across the pond from south to north. He swam back again from north to south, climbed out, shook himself like a water dog and sat down. "Dipper by name, Dipper by nature," he said. "That's me."

From 'Dipper's Island' by Henrietta Branford. Text copyright © Henrietta Branford 1999.
Published by Walker Books Ltd 1999.