One afternoon, a bell sound was heard from far away: “Ding-ding! Ding-ding!” It was the sound of the ice cream truck. Pingy, who loved ice cream, happily wiggled her wings and ran toward the sound. On the way, she carefully jumped over rivers that looked like blue syrup.

When Pingy arrived, she saw a long line of kind animals. In front of her stood a cottony rabbit named “Bafi.” Pingy didn’t run to go to the front. Very calmly and politely, she stood behind Bafi. She knew that to get to the tasty ice cream, she had to be a little patient.

Suddenly, a gentle wind blew and Bafi’s fluffy hat fell off his head. Bafi didn’t notice, but Pingy immediately bent down and picked the blue hat up from the ground. She held the hat with her two little wings and, smiling, gave it to Bafi. Bafi was very happy and thanked Pingy.

At last, it was Pingy’s turn. Mr. “Vanilla,” who was a big, kind polar bear, was standing behind the colorful shop counter. Mr. Vanilla had a white chef’s hat on his head and smelled sweetly of vanilla and rosewater. He looked at Pingy and said, “What a well-mannered penguin! What kind of ice cream would you like?”

Pingy said in a gentle, calm voice, “Hello Mr. Vanilla! Please give me a cone ice cream with strawberry flavor and blue-sky.” Pingy always used the words “hello” and “please.” Mr. Vanilla liked her good manners very much and made her a very big ice cream.

Mr. Vanilla gave the ice cream to Pingy. The ice cream sparkled like rainbow-colored clouds. Pingy took the ice cream and happily said, “Thank you very much, Mr. Vanilla! Have a nice day.” Mr. Vanilla waved to her, and Pingy carefully stepped aside so it could be the rest of her friends’ turn.

Pingy went toward Bafi, who was sitting beside a candy tree. Bafi had also bought his carrot ice cream. Pingy sat next to him. They had become friends. Pingy said, “How nice it is that we all waited in line to get delicious ice creams!”

The sun was slowly going behind the silver mountains. The sky had turned orange and pink. Pingy and Bafi ate their ice creams to the very end. The ground under their feet sparkled like sugar treats and rock candy. Pingy thought that taking turns and having good manners makes ice cream taste much sweeter.

When night came, Pingy returned to her warm home. She stretched out on her soft bed and closed her eyes. She said to herself, “Tomorrow I will be a polite penguin, too.” Pingy fell asleep very quickly and dreamed of a world where all the mountains were made of vanilla ice cream.