The cockcrow :DEBBIE, SANDY AND PEPE

 Debbie, Sandy and Pepe

By Merrill Corney

Debbie ran down the path beside the house. "Look, Sandy! Come and have a look at this!"  She knelt beside the little bundle of feathers on the ground and gently touched it with her finger. Sandra appeared beside her.

   "It's a baby bird," she said. "It might have fallen from it's nest," and she craned her neck upwards to search the tree above their heads.

   "Poor little thing", crooned Debbie as she stroked the shivering bundle. " Your mother must be so worried." She scooped it up in one hand and straight away it spread its tiny half feathered wings and tried to fly. Its beak opened wide and lead out a squeaking much louder than you would expect from such a small body.

   "Look at its beak," Sandra said, laughing. "It's so big!" "It looks like a yellow plastic," giggled Debbie. She wriggled her finger like a worm and the little creature snapped harmlessly at her.

   Debbie stood up.

    "We'd better find its nest and put it back," she said. They searched every tree and bush in the garden but  there was no sign of a nest. No mother bird's cry of alarm broke the afternoon stillness.

    "Perhaps, he fluttered here from some where else." Suggested Sandra, "and his mother couldn't find him." Debbie cradled him against the chest.

    "Well, we'll just have to look after him ourselves then," she said. "We'll Mae a soft nest for him and feed him and when he grows up, he will stay in our garden."

    They spent the the rest of the afternoon caring for the bird. They chose the old letter box in the hedge for a nest. It was part of the front fence, but the cypress hedge had grown over it so that the post man could not reach it. Now he put the mail in the new box shaped like a house that sat on the gatepost.

   "The girls half filled the old box with dry grass clippings. It made a soft comfortable nest. The half-fledged , ugly little creature nestled down with eyes closed and squeaked for food.

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