The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly by Reg Down Read Free Book Online

small, round one, half the size of the others.
    “That small one doesn’t look like a goose egg,” said
Tiptoes, surprised. “Is that your egg?”
    “I found it and it’s mine,” replied Lucy Goose.
    Tiptoes scratched her head. This was very strange.
    “Where did you find it?” she asked.
    “I found it on the riverbank. It was covered with mud and
no one was sitting on it, so its mine now,” Lucy replied, and she got all
broody, with a far away look in her eyes.
    Tiptoes knew it was no use talking to a broody goose
so off she went to find Jeremy Mouse.

Jeremy Mouse and Tiptoes Look for the Mother of the
Half-Egg
    Jeremy Mouse was in the meadow gathering grass to make
a fresh bed.
    “Jeremy Mouse,” said Tiptoes, “Lucy the Goose is
sitting on three and a half eggs, and the half one isn’t hers. What are we
going to do?”
    “Let’s ask Quack the Duck if she is missing an egg,”
suggested Jeremy. “She’s only half the size of Lucy and perhaps it’s hers.”
    Off they went to the House of Duck. She lived on the
banks of Running River.

    “Have you lost an egg?” asked Tiptoes when they
reached her.
    “One, two, three, four, five, six,” counted Quack the
Duck. “No, they’re all here. Did you loose an egg baby?” she asked Jeremy
Mouse.
    “No,” he replied. “Lucy the Goose has an extra
half-egg—and besides, mice don’t lay eggs, we have pink mouselings.”
    “Pink mouselings!” exclaimed Quack the Duck. “That
must be very pretty.”
    “Let’s go to Henrietta Moor Hen,” said Tiptoes.
    “One, two, three, four, five,” counted Henrietta when
they reached the House of Moor Hen and told her what had happened. “No, they’re
all here.”
    All day long Tiptoes and Jeremy Mouse went from house
to house and nest to nest. They went to the House of Snipe, the House of Heron,
and even the House of Swan, but nobody had lost an egg.
    “We’ll just have to wait till Lucy’s eggs hatch,” said
Tiptoes. “Then we’ll find out who lost her egg.”

The Sunflower
    Pine Cone and Pepper Pot were working in their garden.
They had planted wild strawberries, dandelions, carrots, beets and one
sunflower.  Pine Cone had found the sunflower seed underneath the birdfeeder
near Farmer John’s house and planted it.  It was already taller than the
gnomes.
    “I can’t wait until it flowers,” said Pine Cone. 
“Sunflowers have such big, noddy heads.”
    “And they love the Sun so much their flowers follow it
all day long,” said Pepper Pot.  “How do they do that?”
    “It’s like baby ducklings,” replied Pine Cone.  “They
follow Mother Duck everywhere she goes.”
    Pine Cone and Pepper Pot looked at the sunflower. 
Then they looked up at the Sun.  The Sun smiled warmly.
    “The Sun is full of secrets,” said Pepper Pot.
    “Yes, it is,” echoed Pine Cone, and they both stood
quietly for a while.

Chips
    Jeremy Mouse finished gathering fresh dry grass for
his bed. Tiptoes had come along the day before, just as he started to make a
new bed, and they had to look for the Mother of the Half-egg. That had taken
all day. Now, at last, he was finished, and his bedroom underneath the Great
Oak Tree smelt like sweet hay.
    Suddenly he heard someone knocking. Jeremy Mouse went
to his door and looked out. Nobody was there.
    “That’s strange,” he thought. “I did hear someone
knocking quite loudly,” and went back inside.
    No sooner was he back in his bedroom when he heard
‘knock, knock, knock’ again. Jeremy Mouse ran to the door as fast as he could,
but no matter how hard he looked there was still nobody there.
    “Someone is playing tricks on me,” he thought. “I
wonder who it is?”
    Suddenly a ‘knock, knock, rat-a-tat-tat,
rat-a-tat-tat’ sounded above his head. It was so loud he had to cover is ears.
He looked up and saw Chips the Woodpecker hammering on the Oak Tree. He was
called Chips because wood chips flew in all directions when he was hammering.

    “What are you