Page 20 - Book 8 Matty Hedgehog and the Paper Chase

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Matty Hedgehog and the Paper Chase
In minutes, Mrs Weston had guided the chickens back to the pen. Mr Weston shooed them inside and fastened the latch.
Charlie Rabbit was curious about the noise going on outside his home. He picked up his bag, and opened the front door in time to see Alfie scurrying away from the bakery.
‘What’s going on?’ he called.
Alfie turned and boomed: ‘The Westons’ have decided to breed chickens and earlier this morning, I found them scratching and pecking among the vegetables. I’ve warned Sam and left him to tell Betsy. They store sacks of corn in the bakery and once they get a sniff off that corn, the chickens will be all over the bakery. Chickens will move mountains for a dinner. She’ll be furious.
‘The Westons probably don’t realise what they have let themselves in for. Dust baths in the soil, no more flowers or young vegetables because the chickens have scraped them up – and they scoff tomatoes.’
Charlie was happy to let Alfie rant on. Finally, he spoke. ‘I take it you don’t like them?’
Alfie was about to repeat his feather story but changed his mind. ‘It isn’t a question of liking or disliking. They will create mayhem unless the Westons mean to keep them inside the pen.’
‘Then we shall have to wait and see,’ said Charlie with a wry smile as they walked through the garden gate into the meadow. Alfie was starting a new job in Top Field and Charlie was finishing a new roof with his apprentice, Daisy Rabbit in Barns Wood.