by Helen Peters
As Tom picked up the ball and kicked it back to the gang of lambs, Jasmine’s gaze wandered to the barn. It looked so empty now that lambing season was over. But Popcorn and Peanut were still there, cheeping in their cage. And on a straw bale facing them stood two wild sparrows, singing their hearts out to the fledglings. The fledglings, Jasmine was sure, were answering them.
She took a deep breath.
“Tom?”
“What?” said Tom, running over to retrieve the ball.
“I think we should set the sparrows free.”
Tom looked at her in surprise. “Right now? Are you sure?”
“They’re ready. It wouldn’t be fair to keep them any longer. Let’s do it before I change my mind.”
Standing in front of the cage, Jasmine took a long last look at her sparrows, trying to fix them in her mind so she would remember them forever. Then she opened the door.
“Goodbye, little birds,” she whispered. “Have a lovely life.”
Part of her hoped the sparrows wouldn’t want to leave. But as soon as she stepped back from the cage, Peanut hopped to the door, spread her wings and flew out of the barn into the nearby bushes. Then Popcorn hopped up into the doorway, spread his wings and followed her.
Tom glanced at Jasmine, but she didn’t look back at him. She kept her eyes fixed on the bushes and said nothing. Tom watched with her for a while, but when the sparrows didn’t reappear, he went back to the sheep field.
Jasmine sat on a bale, gazing into the thicket, until she remembered she had to write a story for school the next morning.
She fetched her exercise book and brought Lucky to the barn to keep her company.
“What should I write about, Lucky?” she asked him.
A sparrow flew from the beams above her into one of the trees outside the barn. Jasmine looked up at the barn roof, remembering the day she had found Peanut and Popcorn.
An idea began to form in her mind. She picked up her pen and started to write.
The first thing I remember is falling. Falling out of my cosy nest. Falling a long, long way, and landing in a rough tangle of straw.
The story came into her head so fast that her pen could barely keep up with her ideas. Jasmine was so absorbed that, until Lucky tugged at her trouser leg, she didn’t notice the two little sparrows pecking in the straw at her feet.
“Popcorn?” she said. “Peanut?”
The sparrows’ shiny black eyes looked into Jasmine’s for a second. Then they beat their wings and flew away, disappearing into the branches of a hawthorn tree.
Jasmine stroked Lucky’s soft warm ears and turned back to her exercise book. Lucky nibbled her sleeve as she wrote the final words of her story.
The girl opened the door of my cage.
“Fly, little one, fly!” she whispered.
I was gone in a flutter, calling my final farewells.
For I am a bird, and birds fly free.
She sat in silence for a moment. When she looked up, she was surprised to see her parents walking towards the barn.
Mum glanced at the empty cage, and then at Jasmine.
“You’ve set them free?”
Jasmine’s throat felt tight. She couldn’t speak. She just nodded.
Mum hugged her. “You should be very proud of yourself, Jas. It’s not easy to look after animals for so long and then let them go. You’ve done a really good job.”
Jasmine pulled back from the hug. She wasn’t in the mood. Any second now, they would start talking about how she would soon have to let Lucky go, too.
“Dad and I have been talking,” said Mum. “We’re so grateful to you for saving the sheep. If it weren’t for you, we would have lost them all.”
“We think you deserve a reward,” said Dad. He smiled at her. “How would you like to keep Lucky?”
Jasmine stared at Dad and then at Mum, hardly able to take this in.
“Really?” she said. “I can keep Lucky? Forever?”
“It seems only right,” said Dad, “after what you did last night.”
“Oh, thank you, Dad!” said Jasmine. “Thank you, Mum! Thank you so much!”
She knelt down in the straw and hugged the lamb. “Did you hear that, Lucky? You get to stay with me forever.”
Lucky bleated and licked her ear.
“You named him well,” said Mum. “He’s certainly brought us luck.”
“I knew he would,” said Jasmine. “He’s a very lucky lamb.”
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my niece, Rosie Hobbs, who allowed me to use extracts from her story, Epic, in the final chapter of this book. And thank you to Eden and Emily in the Scottish Borders, who suggested that I name the lamb Lucky.
Also by
HELEN PETERS
LOOK OUT FOR:
A Piglet Called Truffle
A Duckling Called Button
A Sheepdog Called Sky
A Kitten Called Holly
A Goat Called Willow
FOR OLDER READERS:
The Secret Hen House Theatre
The Farm Beneath the Water
Evie’s Ghost
Copyright
First published in the UK in 2018 by Nosy Crow Ltd
The Crow’s Nest, 14 Baden Place,
Crosby Row, London SE1 1YW, UK
Nosy Crow and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered
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Text copyright © Helen Peters, 2018
Cover and illustrations copyright © Ellie Snowdon, 2018
The right of Helen Peters and Ellie Snowdon to be identified
as the author and illustrator respectively of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978 1 78800 024 6
eISBN: 978 1 78800 025 3
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