Once there was a young wombat named Benson, who lived in a nice wombat hole with his mother, and his two aunts, Lillibet and Moss.
Benson wanted to dig a hole. He wanted to dig a really big hole, the biggest hole anyone had ever dug. He picked a good spot and started digging.
He dug down and down. He loved digging, and it was the best fun in the world, digging up the soft dark earth and tossing it up out of his hole. He was so happy he started to sing.
One of his friends, whose name was Mick, came by, and heard him singing.
“Hey, Benson, what are you doing?”
“Digging. I’m digging the biggest hole anyone ever dug.”
Mick said, “That sounds cool. Can I help?”
Benson said, “It’s already pretty deep. It’s so deep, I can’t throw the dirt out the top any more. If you got a bucket, and tied it to a string, I could put the dirt in the bucket and you could pull it up.”
“Okay,” Mick said. He got a bucket and tied a good long string to its handle and lowered it down to Benson. Benson filled it up with dirt; Mick pulled it up and emptied it on a pile next to the hole. Benson dug some more dirt and filled the bucket up again.
They kept going for ages, and the hole got deeper and deeper. The pile of dirt got so high it was like a mountain.
Then Mick remembered it was time for lunch. “Hey, Benson, I’ve got to go home for lunch. I’ll come back and do some more later, okay?”
Benson said, “Okay, thanks for helping.” He dug for a while longer and then he thought he should have some lunch too. Digging made him really hungry.
Then he found he had a problem. The hole was so deep he couldn’t get out.
He tried climbing up the side but he kept falling back down. He tried digging a tunnel out one side, but there was nowhere to put the dirt. He started to feel really hungry, and a bit frightened.
He yelled as loud as he could.
His mother heard him and came out, with Aunt Moss. “Benson, where are you?” they called.
“I’m here, in this hole!”
His mother and Aunt Moss looked down at him, at the bottom of a very deep hole.
“That’s a very deep hole,” his mother said. “How did you manage to dig such a deep hole?”
“Mick was here helping me, with a bucket. Now I can’t get out. Can you pull me out?”
They tried reaching over the side to him, but he was way too far down for them to reach. They tried lowering the bucket to pull him up, but the string broke straight away.
“You need to stand on something so we can reach you,” Benson’s mother said.
“I know,” said Aunt Moss. “There are some old bricks at the back of the garden he could stand on.” She got the bricks and got ready to throw them down.
“Moss!” Benson’s mother shrieked. “You’re not going to throw bricks down on Benson!”
“Oh,” said Aunt Moss. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea. Then how are we ever going to get him out?”
Benson’s mother started to look worried.
Then Aunt Lillibet came out. “Why is everyone looking down a hole in the middle of the backyard?” she said.
Aunt Moss explained. “Benson has dug himself a hole so deep he can’t climb out of it, and we’re afraid he’ll starve to death before he can get himself out.”
“Moss!” said Benson’s mother. “He won’t starve to death. We can dig him out, but it will take a long time.”
Aunt Lillibet looked at the mountain of dirt next the hole. She looked down the hole at Benson, sitting sadly at the bottom.
“We can get him out faster than that. We just have to fill up the hole again.”
Benson’s mother said, “We can’t fill the hole up. Benson is at the bottom of it.”
“Watch this,” Lillibet said. She called down into the hole. “Benson, move right over to the side.” She dug some of the dirt out of the dirt mountain and threw it down into the hole. “Now, Benson, jump on that dirt, and make it hard and solid.”
Benson spread out the dirt that Lillibet threw in and jumped on it to make it solid. He was just a bit higher. Lillibet threw some more dirt in. He jumped on that and it made him a little bit higher still.
Lillibet and Aunt Moss took turns tossing dirt into Benson’s hole. A lot of dirt got all over him, but the floor of the hole got higher and higher and Benson got closer and closer to the top.
When it was high enough, his mother and Aunt Lillibet and Aunt Moss helped pull him out.
“Thankyou,” said Benson.
“Time for lunch,” his mother said.
Benson looked at his hole, not so deep any more. “It was a pretty deep hole,” he said. “It was probably the deepest hole anyone has ever dug.”
“It’s probably the deepest hole you’ll ever dig,” said Aunt Lillibet.
A Wombat Named Benson 