3187. Mother Madeline Bantam © Bruce Goodman 26 April 2025

It had been an extremely difficult year for Mother Madeline Bantam. She would lay an egg nearly every day, and every day it would be taken away. If only she could lay half a dozen eggs or so and sit on them. It would only take three weeks to get the eggs to hatch. Why, oh why won’t they let me sit on my eggs? And then suddenly… Someone came in and put ten eggs in her laying box. She sat on them immediately. She knew straightaway that they weren’t her eggs. They were bigger eggs than hers. She laid little bantam eggs. And these eggs were not as brown like hers. Beggars can’t be chooses. She shall be content with someone else’s eggs. Sitting on the eggs seemed interminable, but then she heard a Cheep! Cheep! Cheep! They had arrived! Mother Madeline Bantam cared for them tirelessly. “Soon,” she said, “some of you will go Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! and some of you will go Cock-a-doodle-doo!” “Quack! Quack! Quack!” they said. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story