Cuckoo!
Cuckoo!
Winnie and tony were playing in the woods together. They had kept houses, played school and had hunted for promises. Now Winnie was tired and wanted to go home.
‘I’m not tried!’ said Tony. ‘I’d like a game of hide-and-seek.’
‘I don’t want to play,’ said Winnie. ‘You stay here if you like. I’m going home. I’ll tell Mummy you’ll come soon.’
Off she went, and Tony was left alone in the wood, halfway up a tree he was climbing.
‘Winnie’s silly!’ he grumbled to himself. ‘She might have stayed and had a game. I love hide-and-seek!’
As he was climbing down the tree someone called, ‘Cuckoo! Cuckoo!’
‘Good old Winnie!’ said Tony, pleased. ‘She is playing after all! I suppose she found a good hiding place as she ran off, and hid there. All right, Winnie! I’ll find you!’
He ran towards the voice and hunted through the bushes. ‘Where are you?’ he cried.
'Cuckoo! Cuckoo!' came the voice, this time behind him. Tony ran off again, looking behind the trees and under the brushes. Wherever could Winnie be?
'Call again!' he shouted. No answer. Then, after a while, he heard once more: 'Cuckoo!'
'Well, where are you?' cried Tony, crossly. 'You’re not to dodge about like that, Winnie. Keep in one place. It isn't fair.'
'Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!' This time it was to the left of him, quite near. Tony felt really cross. Winnie wasn't playing fair. She wasn't hiding in the same place all the time. She was creeping round about him.
'I give up!' he cried. 'Where are you, Winnie?
'Cuckoo! Cuckoo!'
'Don't be silly, I'm not playing any more!'shouted Tony. 'Come out, Winnie, and we'll go home together.'
But Winnie didn't come out. Nobody came at all - but still someone called: 'Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
'All right, then, silly, I'm going home by myself!' said Tony in a huff, and he ran home. But Winnie was there before him! She opened the door to him!
'How did you get here so soon?' said tony in surprise. 'You might have told me where you were hiding, Winnie. I looked and looked and looked.'
'But I didn't play hide-and-seek,' said Winnie in astonishment. 'I came straight home. I've been helping Mummy get the tea for ever so long.'
'You couldn't have been,' said Tony 'Because I kept hearing you call ''Cuckoo'', Winnie.'
'I didn't,' said Winnie.
'You did!'
'I didn't
'You did!'
'Children, children, don't quarrel!' called their mother. 'Tony, you're a silly boy. Listen at the front door for a minute.'
Tony went there and listened - and from the woods came a call: 'cuckoo! Cuckoo!'
'Oh!' said Tony, going red. It's the cuckoo come back to us again after being away all the winter. Oh, what a silly I am! I played hide-and-seek with him!'
And how Mummy and Winnie laughed!
