Page 65 - Book 8 Matty Hedgehog and the Paper Chase

Matty Hedgehog and the Paper Chase 63
mail. He was pleased to have a visitor. After exchanging news Charlie asked the bird if he had ever flown over an orchard full of chickens.
‘Several, now and again. Why do you ask?’ said the bird.
Charlie told him about the birds and how they came to be in the wildlife garden. ‘They look different, Yappy. Not at all like the ordinary brown chickens that strut around Barns Farm.’
‘I’ll make a few enquiries tomorrow when the collectors come in. One of them will be sure to know.’
‘Oh! I nearly forgot. Minnie said that she always heard a unique whistling sound in the mornings and afternoons in their orchard.’
***
Charlie had been waiting patiently to hear from Yappy for days, when at last he heard that one of Yappy’s telegram delivery pigeons had discovered the orchard on the other side of the forest during his rounds. The loud whistling sound that Minnie had heard came from a nearby school where a whistle was blown after playtime to assemble the children.
Trying to figure out how to get the chickens home safely seemed like an impossibility. Alfie Squirrel had pointed out that the birds wouldn’t be able to cross the big road between them and their orchard.
‘But the coming autumn Wheat Fair could be their ticket home,’ he had suggested. The fair was a huge event that the woodland animals looked forward to. During the summer