by A. N. Wilson
‘Mam – get us a gerbil,’ said a little boy. ‘You shut up,’ said his mother rudely.
‘Mum,’ said the girl, ‘would it be all right if I went out and looked at a few shop windows? I won’t go far.’
‘Provided you don’t leave the covered market,’ said Mum, ‘and provided you don’t talk to strangers, and provided you are only five minutes.’
So the little girl left the café and walked to the next aisle of the market. And there on the corner was the pet shop window. There was a little group of people staring in at the window. Some were looking at a green lizard in a tank; and some were looking at the goldfish. But the greater part of them were looking at a lower window that contained … Beryl! There was Beryl, all on her own, nibbling some bran from a bowl and looking nonplussed by all this attention.
Evidently the other three babies had already been sold and, to judge from the talk at the window, Beryl would soon be sold too.
‘Mam – get us a gerbil,’ said a little boy.
‘You shut up,’ said his mother rudely.
Another mother was saying, ‘Isn’t it sweet?’
‘Can’t we get it, Mummy, please?’ said this other mother’s daughter who looked – our girl considered – really horrible.
Our girl had only planned to have one last look at her guinea pig babies. She only wanted to see them, and to say goodbye. She really had not planned what happened next, but she found herself looking in her purse. Mum had let her keep half the money from yesterday’s transaction, so she had £1.75. In addition, she had 50p pocket money from that morning and £1 in savings. Altogether she had £3.25. She had promised not to speak to strangers, but the man in the pet shop was not exactly a stranger. She found herself going into the shop. She felt very shy, and her heart was pounding excitedly.
The pet shop man took a long time before serving her. There were a lot of people in front of her, and every time they opened their mouths, the girl was afraid that they were going to ask if they could buy the guinea pig. But the man with the nobbly nose bought some dog food, and the short, fat woman with a scarf bought birdseed, and the two children bought hay … and at last it was the girl’s turn.
‘How much is the guinea pig in the window?’ she blurted out shyly.
‘At least you know what it is,’ laughed the man. ‘We had some people in just now thought it was a gerbil. It’s four pounds. Very fine guinea pig. It’s been beautifully reared.’
The man did not seem to recognise her as the girl who had sold him the guinea pigs the day before.
‘You wouldn’t take three pounds and twenty-five pence, I suppose,’ said the girl.
‘Well,’ said the man. ‘The price is …’ He peered at her. Did he know? ‘The price is really four pounds.’
‘It is rather a small, puny guinea pig,’ said the girl. ‘Have you no others?’
‘We had three others,’ said the man, ‘but they’ve all gone. Sold like hot cakes. And this,’ he paused, ‘this was the prize of the bunch.’ He was obviously weakening because he then said, ‘If you bought it, you would look after it properly wouldn’t you? It’s been beautifully handled and reared since birth, this cavy.’
‘Oh, I would. I know how to look after guinea pigs. I have one or two already,’ said the girl.
‘Three is the ideal number to have,’ said the man. ‘Two females and one male. This one here’s a female.’
The girl was clever. She did not say, ‘I know.’ She said instead, ‘You see, I only have three pounds and twenty-five pence. I could let you have the other seventy-five pence in a week’s time.’ And then the man smiled and said, ‘Oh, all right. You can have it for three pounds and twenty-five pence.’
A few minutes later the girl reappeared at the café, just as Mum was finishing her coffee. She was carrying a little cardboard box, and out of it there were coming the excited squeaks of Beryl.
‘You needn’t tell me what you’ve got in there,’ Mum said. ‘I’ve guessed.’
‘I wasn’t planning to buy her, really, Mum, I wasn’t.’
‘Which one is it?’ asked Mum. ‘I hope it is only one? Three guinea pigs is quite enough.’
‘It is Beryl,’ said the girl.
‘Not One, Two, Three or Four?’
‘It is the one you call “Four,”’ said the girl.
‘You don’t need to tell me what you’ve got in there,’ Mum said. ‘I’ve guessed.’
‘I shan’t call her “Four” anymore,’ said Mum. ‘I shall call her Beryl. Beryl is a good name.’
About an hour later, Tobacco and Hazel were in their separate hutches.
‘Coo-eee!’
‘Is that you, girl?’ asked Tobacco.
‘No,’ said Hazel, ‘it wasn’t me.’
‘Thought I heard you call. Nice celery this morning, mine were.’
‘I’ve tasted crispier,’ said Hazel, ‘but yes, it were nice.’
‘Coo-eee!’
‘There you go again,’ said Tobacco.
‘No I don’t,’ said Hazel. ‘It’s not me calling out. It’s this new little brown ’un.’
‘Brown ’un?’
‘Yes,’ said Hazel. ‘When they come round with the celery this morning, they put this new brown ’un in to share with me.’
‘Not a boar?’ said Tobacco suspiciously. ‘No, a little sow’ said Hazel.
‘Not a boar?’ said Tobacco suspiciously. ‘You’re not sharing your cage with no he-pig?’
‘No, a little sow,’ said Hazel.
‘That’s all right then,’ said Tobacco. ‘Wonder why they didn’t put her in to share with me?’
‘She’s nice,’ shouted Hazel. ‘More friendly to have someone to talk to.’
‘Coo-eee!’ shouted Beryl.
‘Funny idea, bringing in another,’ said Hazel, ‘when we were all right on our own. But friendly, certainly.’
‘Coo-eee, brown ’un!’ shouted back Tobacco.
The End
Barn Anna Bread
‘This guinea pig,’ said Tobacco, ‘he said the best fruit to eat was called the Barn Anna. White, I believe it is.’
Us humans like bananas to be a little bit more exciting. Here’s a fun and easy recipe to make BANANAS into BREAD.
You will need:
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220g self-raising flour
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110g soft butter
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200g soft brown sugar
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4 medium-sized bananas (nice and brown)
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2 eggs
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a pinch of salt
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1tsp cinnamon, optional
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and grease a loaf tin or small cake tin.
2. Mash the bananas with a fork and then mix with all the other ingredients until the flour has disappeared into the mixture.
3. Pour into the loaf tin.
4. Cook for about one hour or ask for help to test with a skewer/knife: if you poke it into the cake, and it comes out ‘clean’, your bread is cooked and ready to eat when it has cooled down!
Toilet Roll Tunnels
Hazel liked to explore. When she was in her hutch, she sometimes ran from one room to the next, as though she were looking for something.
Your guinea pig will love to explore, too. To make your pet a network of tunnels, you will need:
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Old kitchen rolls
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Scissors
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Old cardboard boxes.
Make sure your guinea pig can easily squeeze through a kitchen roll. Then, cut four 2cm slits into the end of the rolls. When they are cut, they will be able to squeeze together more easily to slip one inside the other.
Make two holes in a cardboard or shoe box and pop the rolls into the holes to create a fun den for your guinea pig. Experiment with hiding bits of food in places around the den so your pet can search for it.
Word Search
S
ee if you can find all the words in the box.
Match the Names
See if you can match the different guinea pig breed names to their pictures:
Guinea Pig Facts
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Guinea pigs normally live for five to six years.
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Guinea pigs originally come from the Andes, in South America (the oldest recorded guinea pig was fourteen years, ten months and two weeks old).
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In the wild, guinea pigs live in groups of five to ten.
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A baby guinea pig can run when it is only three hours old!
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Young guinea pigs are known as pups, not piglets.