An emergency helps two brothers forget their rivalry in this story by Geraldine Marsh, 13, of High Wycombe.

ONCE upon a time there were two brothers called Francis and Phillip. They hated each other.

Francis was the oldest, 12, and he thought Philip was a boring cry baby who never wanted to do anything fun because he was a sissy. Philip was 9 and he thought Francis was a clever dick who thought he was in charge just because he was older.

One day the family were having a picnic by a river and the daddy went off to look for a toilet. The mummy was leaning over the river to wash her hands when a dog rushed past her and knocked her in.

The mummy couldn't swim and started screaming and thrashing around in the water.

Philip, the sissy, started to panic. He didn't know what to do but Francis, the clever dick, took charge and grabbed the tow rope from the back of the car and threw one end of it out to his mummy.

His mummy grabbed it and pulled but Francis lost his footing and fell in the river too. He couldn't swim either and started to panic too.

Philip suddenly stopped being a scaredy cat. He knew it was down to him to save them. He grabbed the spare tyre from the back of the car and rolled it into the water and pushed it with a stick until it floated over to his mummy and brother.

They grabbed on to it and kicked themselves to the water's edge where Philip helped them out, safe and sound.

After that Philip and Francis never called each other names again.