Little Chick-chick's Easter Surprise

"Cock-a-doodle doo! Wake up sleepyheads! Cock-a-doodle doo!"
Little chick-chick poked his head out from under his mother's wing and rubbed his eyes.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" crowed the rooster.

"I do wish your father wouldn't be so CHEERFUL in the morning, grumbled Mother Hen, and she shut her eyes firmly and snuggled deeper into the straw.
Little Chick-chick couldn't get back to sleep no matter how much he tried, so he crept out and went to look at the world.

Off he went across the farmyard, looking for someone to play with. "Will you come out and play with me?" he asked Little Brown Chick. But Little Brown Chick was feeling cosy and warm snuggled up to his mother and didn't want to play. So Little Chick-chick headed off towards the duck-pond.

"Ducky!" he shouted. "Are you coming out to play? There was a splash and a splatter as his friend Ducky dived off his mother's back, swam across the pond and waddled up the bank to meet him. "Where are we going? What shall we play at? Can I come too?" quacked Ducky excitedly. "Let's play explorers," cheeped Little Chick-chick and Ducky, who always agreed with him, followed him across the farmyard.

The first place they decided to explore was the hen-house, but the hens were very cross : "Go away, go away, mind our eggs, mind our eggs," they clucked.
"They're always the same with new babies," cheeped Ducky. "My Mum's the same, as soon as she has new eggs she shoos us away from them. Babies aren't any fun."
So Little Chick-chick and Ducky went off across the farmyard to find somewhere else to explore.

Little Chick-chick stopped by a gate. "What are we stopping for?" asked Ducky, and he started to scramble under it.
"Look, there's some humans," cheeped Little Chick-chick. "Do you think they'll chase us away?"
"Oh no," quacked Ducky, "humans like us. Those small ones are children, and they come to see us on the pond every day, and always bring us food. I like humans!"

Little Chick-chick followed Ducky under the gate and they carried on exploring. There was lots of grass on this part of the farm and they liked it, it was nice and soft under their feet.

Suddenly, Little Chick-chick stopped, and Ducky almost fell over him. "Look! One of the babies has got lost!!" he cheeped excitedly Ducky looked at it. "It's definitely an egg," he quacked slowly,"but whose egg? "

"I don't think it's one of my new baby brothers, my Mum's eggs are speckled, not striped," cheeped Little Chick-chick."
"My mum's eggs are pale blue, not bright colours, so it's not one of ours either," quacked Ducky.
"Well, whoever it belongs to, this egg is LOST and we must take it home and find its Mum."

Very, very carefully, Little Chick-chick and his friend Ducky rolled the egg over the grass, under the gate and into the farmyard. "We must go very slowly - eggs break easily and our Mums will be cross if we even crack it."
They had to be extra careful as they crossed the stony bit of the farmyard, but eventually they got it back to the hen-house safe and sound.

"Mum! Mum!" shouted an excited Little Chick-chick, "come quick! Look what we've found!"
The hens came running out of the hen house, and the ducks on the pond, hearing the commotion, came running too. "What have you got there?"
The hens and the ducks crowded round the egg and examined it carefully. "It's not MY baby," said the first hen, "it's not one of ours at all."
"It's not MY baby" said the biggest duck, "it's not a duck egg either. What SHALL we do?" and the hens and ducks started fussing and quacking and clucking and making a terrible noise.

"What's all the fuss about?" came a deeper voice. The hens and ducks moved aside and let the Rooster in for a closer look at the egg which Little Chick-chick and Ducky has rescued. The Rooster started to shake, and the hens and ducks looked anxious. Then he threw his head back and crowed. "You silly hens! You silly ducks! You really ARE feather-brained! This is a chocolate Easter egg! The Easter Bunny brings them for the children to find"

And he turned and flew back up to the top of the haystack, where he laughed and laughed.

Slowly the hens turned away, and wandered off scratching and pecking at the ground as if nothing had happened. The ducks waddled off to the pond and began swimming around as usual. Soon, only Little Chick-chick and Ducky were left with the egg.

"Now what do we do?" asked Ducky. "Well, if it's not a real egg, and it's not lost, there's only one thing we can do," answered Little Chick-chick. And very carefully, he started to peel the shiny paper off the chocolate egg and together they settled down to eat their special Easter Surprise!

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Story and illustrations all original and created by Dianne Davies © March 2005, all rights reserved. If you wish to use my pictures, please email me and I will send you high-resolution versions with transparent backgrounds.

More children's stories on this website :
Hector goes to market ~ Scully's Busy Day ~ The Littlest Fir Tree

and : The Sad Tale of Humpty Dumpty and his Terrible End

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