The sun lazily drifted towards the horizon. The shadows of the trees grew longer and longer. The heat gradually eased off. A fresh breeze picked up, and the trees rustled their leaves. Birds circled in flight, now flapping their wings, now hovering, now gliding through the air.
The yellow-eyed daisies growing on the lawn swayed and lifted their heads higher, as if trying to hear better what the birds were singing up above. A warm summer shower had passed, and droplets that hadn't yet dried glistened on the grass like silvery beads. A speckled hen led her baby chicks out for a walk. In the far corner of the lawn, she scratched up worms from the damp earth for them.
The chicks crowded around their mother waiting for food, and chirped with pleasure in their tiny voices:
Cheep-cheep-cheep, cheep-cheep-cheep.
Two chicks spotted a crawling worm at the same time and one of them cried out:
That's my worm! I saw it first!
No way. I found it!
Replied the second.
My worm!
No, mine!
Whilst they argued, the worm crawled away to safety.
The chicks rushed to chase after it, but it had vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, one disobedient silly chick had wandered far from his mother hen and, finding himself alone, got lost in the thick grass and began to cheep pitifully.
This cheeping was heard by the neighbour's cat, who was warming herself in the sun under a bush. She looked around, crouched down on her belly and began to creep along the bushes towards the little yellow chick, who looked like a blooming dandelion. At that moment there was no one nearby, and nothing prevented the cat from carrying out her wicked intention. There she froze, only twitching the tip of her long tail slightly. By all appearances, she was preparing for the decisive pounce.
But as it turned out, the cat wasn't quite alone on the lawn at that time. Nearby, in an old branching tree, sat a crow. She was always across everything that happened in the neighbourhood. She knew all about everyone and had even composed a little song about herself:
I'm a crow, I know it all,
I can do everything, understand it all.
I'll tell you lot as well,
Show you how to do things properly.
So now she saw everything, and seemed to be waiting to see what would happen next. Or perhaps she wanted to pinch the chick herself — such things do happen. Who knows what the black bandit was planning... But suddenly she let out a piercing caw, flew off the branch and swooped down on the ginger cat.
The cat jumped in surprise, the fur on her back stood on end, her tail shot up like a pipe, and she bolted: she darted into the thickets of dense shrubbery.
And what about the crow? Surely now she'll return to the chick...
However, no — beating her broad wings, she circled once over the lawn and flew away.
Meanwhile, the speckled hen suddenly realised that not all her little ones were near her. She began clucking anxiously, ran all around the lawn, looked under every bush, and running up to the thickets of tall grass, saw that something was moving there.
The chick, hearing his mother hen's call, pushed the grass apart with his feet and peeked out timidly. But seeing his mum, he rushed towards her with all his might. Mother hen told him off, but quickly stopped being cross and scratched up a nice fat worm for her little yellow chick.
Read stories and you'll always learn how to behave properly and who you can count on when times are tough.
