The sun lazily drifted toward the horizon. The shadows of the trees grew longer and longer. The heat gradually subsided. A fresh breeze began to blow, and the trees rustled their leaves. Birds circled in flight, now flapping their wings, now pausing, now gliding through the air.
The yellow-eyed daisies growing on the lawn swayed and lifted their heads higher, as if trying to better hear what the birds were singing high above. A warm summer rain had passed, and droplets that hadn't yet dried sparkled like silver beads on the grass. 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:
Peep-peep-peep, peep-peep-peep.
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!
The second one replied.
My worm!
No, mine!
While 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 foolish chick had wandered far from his mother hen and, finding himself alone, got lost in the thick grass and began to chirp pitifully.
This chirping 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 toward the little yellow chick, who looked like a blooming yellow dandelion. At that moment, no one else was nearby, and nothing prevented the cat from carrying out her wicked intention. There she froze, only twitching the tip of her long tail slightly. Apparently, she was preparing for the decisive pounce.
But it turned out the cat wasn't completely alone on the lawn at that moment. Nearby, in an old branching tree, sat a crow. She was always aware of all the events happening in the neighbourhood. She knew everything about everyone and had even composed a song about herself:
I'm a crow, I know it all,
I can do everything, understand it all.
I'll tell you too,
Show you how things are done.
And now she saw everything, and seemed to be waiting to see what would happen next. Or perhaps she herself wanted to snatch the chick — 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 dove at 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 took off running: she slipped into the thicket of dense bushes.
And what about the crow? Surely now she would return to the chick...
However, no — spreading her wide wings, she made a circle over the lawn and flew away.
Meanwhile, the speckled hen suddenly realized 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 thicket of tall grass, saw that someone was moving there.
The chick, hearing his mother hen's call, pushed apart the grass with his feet and peeked out timidly. And seeing his mum, he rushed toward her with all his might. Mother hen scolded him, but quickly stopped being angry 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 in times of trouble.
