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** Magpies **
*** Precious
Eggs ***
by Bobby Mac
part 11 of 13 ( precious eggs
)
“Let's check the ducks”, said Arthur. They
saw two ducks out of the seven
or eight that were usually
there, just two, both just floating on the water
with no heads,
their necks dangling amongst the weeds, “Ohhh!!, dear”,
said
Arthur, “ohhh!! dear, I hate to say it, but, I'm more and
more positive
Big Eyes was right, I wonder who he was?”.
“I wonder who he was?”, said Arthur's brother,
“well, as you know, I didn't
see much of him, but I
believe it might have been Barny the Owl from
the old farm
sheds”.
“Well he would have nothing to gain by
frightening us away, so the more
I see, the more I'm inclined
to believe him”, said Arthur, “we will make
one
more flight over the chicken house and duck pond, then we
will
head for home”.
As they did, they saw Charlotte
still laying on her side, the young
dog Max was rolling her
precious eggs around. “They won't last long”,
said
Arthur. They saw the two ducks still just floating with their
heads in the weeds. As they turned towards home, a loud
howling started,
howling like when the fire siren went off. It
was from one of the dogs.
“It came from near the Holly
tree”, said Arthur. They saw Max go bounding
towards the
tree and skid to a sudden stop beside his father Caesar.
Sticking
out from under the prickly holly tree was what looked like
Sasha's
tail. Max joined Caesar in a long wolf-like howl and both
dogs
were pawing the ground and shaking with what looked like
fright.
“That's it!!”, said Arthur Magpies brother,
“I'm off!!, if it can get rid
of all those birds and
animals in just one night, including one of those
big dogs,
I'm off!!”. “Me too!!” said Arthur Magpie. They
didn't wait
any longer, they flew back to the front garden,
got the Magpie families
together, took what they could carry,
and, flew back to the Macracarpa
trees in the fields beyond
Granny and Granddad's boundary, all
vowing never to return
again.
*****
Copyright: Bobby Mac, June
2003
Published: www.tardemstudios.co.nz – 1st.
February 2005
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