Lady Hippopotamus, Mrs. Crocodile and tiny Mother Mosquito were talking animatedly of how good their children were with all the inhabitants of the swamp. The spoke so well of them that several passers-by wanted to see their children's good deeds. So, the next day, Hippopotamini, Croco-Dale and Mosquite-Joe set about showing everyone how good they could be.

The little hippo decided to bring water to all the sick animals in the area who were injured or hadn't enough strength to go down to the lake to drink. To many his gesture was wonderful, because that year had been very dry, and they were so far from the lake that they thought they would not survive until the next rains. For its part, the little crocodile spent the whole day watching from the shore and acting as a lifeguard, preventing a whole bunch of lost animals from drowning, and they were sincerely grateful and surprised to have been saved by a crocodile. Everyone congratulated Hippopotamini and Croco-Dale, and wondered what the little mosquito could do that would be comparable with such wonderful deeds.

Mosquite-Joe thought he wouldn't be able to match his much bigger friends. But rather than give up, he spent the day talking to one and all, visiting friends here and there, and he turned up that night with an army of animals made up of monkeys, ants, lions, elephants, snakes, buffalo, scorpions, giraffes ... and their aim was to spend a whole day improving life around the lake. And so hard did they work, and in such a good spirit, that one day was enough to completely renew the place and solve most of the problems there. All the inhabitants of the marsh were really happy.

And no longer did anyone have their doubts about Mosquite-Joe. He had proved himself to be so good that he was able to make others even better than himself.