THE NEEP NEEP BIRD

Story: - Janet Marshall Colour Illustrations:- Nell Marshall 1

Mr Mole was a happy contented lile fellow who lived underground most of the time. Using his big front paws, he dug tunnels in the soft earth, searching for worms which were his favourite food. As he worked, he pushed the soil up onto the surface above him and made molehills.

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One morning he woke up after a deep sleep and heard an unusual noise in the air above him. It was a sharp sound like “neep-neep” which he had never heard before. Scrambling out of his tunnel into the daylight, the sound became louder. He looked up into the old sycamore tree above him and there on a branch was an amazing brightly coloured bird. “Neep-neep,” went the bird and Mr Mole said to him, “Where have you come from? I have never seen a bird like you before.”

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The bird �uffed up his bright feathers, which were purple, orange and green, and big fat tears fell from his eyes.

“What is the maer, lile bird?” asked Mr Mole.

“I'm lost” replied the bird. “I have �own with my friends from the other side of the world to spend the summer around here. But I got very tired because I'm only a young bird and I fell from the sky and could go no further. The other birds did not notice and �ew on without me and now I'm all on my own and don't know where to go.”

“What sort of a bird are you?” enquired Mr Mole.

“I'm a neep-neep bird” was the reply.

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“Oh, I see” said Mr Mole, wondering what to do next. “Do you like worms to eat?”

“I don't know. I've never eaten one before.” said the neep-neep bird.

“Well, just wait there on your branch and I will go down my hole and bring you one of my worms out of my store cupboard and see if you like it,” said Mr Mole.

“You are so kind,” said the neep-neep bird. “I might feel beer when I've had something to eat.”

So Mr Mole went down his hole and brought back the faest worm he could �nd.

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“You'll have to �y down from that branch, lile bird,” he said, “as I can't climb trees.”

So the bird �ew down and quickly ate the worm as he was so very hungry. Then he felt beer and began to sing his happy “neep-neep” song again.

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Mr Mole wondered what to do next. He knew that he must let the neep-neep bird's friends know where the lile bird was, so after a lot of thought, he came up with a PLAN. The neep-neep bird had lots of long, bright feathers in his tail and some of them were falling out. So Mr Mole strung them together with �ne blades of grass and asked the neep-neep bird to �y to the very top of the sycamore tree and aach the string of feathers to the topmost branches.

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Very soon these feathers were spoed by the neep-neep bird's friends who were circling around trying to decide where to make a home for the next few months. They �ew down under the sycamore tree and were delighted to �nd the lile bird that they had lost. “Neep-neep, neep-neep, neep-neep,” they all went and Mr Mole had to put his big paws over his ears as the sound was so loud.

“Thank you, thank you, for being so kind to me, Mr. Mole.” said the lile neep-neep bird as he �ew away happily with his friends into the blue, blue sky.

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Book Design:- Grahamgraphics.