by Susan Sundwall –
“I can’t find it! I can’t find it!” shrieked Greta Goose.
“Can’t find what?” asked Brownie, the barnyard dog.
“My honk!”
“Why, I’ve never heard of a goose losing her honk,” said Brownie.
“Listen!” Greta opened wide, took a deep breath and…only air came out.
“How awful,” said Brownie.
“I know,” cried Greta. “I had it this morning. Oh where can it be?”
“Let’s retrace your steps and look for clues,” said Brownie. “When did you last use your honk?”
“At lunchtime,” she said.
In the yard, where all the barnyard birds ate, Brownie and Greta found Danny Duck. “Your honk worked fine at lunchtime,” said Danny. “Why, you honked at Chicken Bess for eating too much corn!”
“Do you know where it could be?” asked Greta.
“I never heard of a goose losing her honk,” said Danny. “I can’t imagine where it could be.”
“I’ve lost it!” cried Greta.
“Stay calm,” said Brownie. “Where were you before lunch?”
“Down by the bubbling brook,” said Greta.
The cows at the brook mooed loudly when Brownie and Greta appeared.
“Are you here to honk and flap your wings at us again?” asked Missy.
“I was annoyed by your swishing tails,” Greta complained. “I’m here because I’ve lost my honk!” She looked anxiously at their patchwork faces. “Do you know where it could be?”
“We’ve never heard of a goose losing her honk,” said the cows. “We can’t imagine where it could be.”
“Oh, what will I do?” wailed Greta.
“We must visit Father Goose,” said Brownie.
Father Goose looked over the top of his spectacles at Brownie and Greta.
“We’re investigating the disappearance of Greta’s honk,” said Brownie.
“Now then, young goose,” said Father Goose, peering into her fretful eyes, “I’m sure I heard you honk quite loudly this morning when Rooster crowed his wake up call.”
Greta sighed. “I only wanted to sleep a bit longer,” she said. “Rooster was so loud!”
“Hmmm…this is serious,” said Father Goose. “We’ll have to try a curing riddle.” He pulled out an old seed packet from his chicken wire files. “Ah, right here, A Riddle for Lost Honks.” He handed it to Greta who handed it to Brownie.
“You take it,” she said. “I’m too nervous to solve a riddle.”
Father Goose smiled. “But you must try, for when you understand the answer to the riddle your honk will return.”
Brownie and Greta sat down under the big maple tree. Brownie found the riddle on a scrap of paper inside the seed packet.
What is hard to find, but easy to keep?
“I don’t know! This is too hard!” Greta ran in a circle, flapping her wings. “I’ll never get my honk back!”
Just then Chicken Bess and Danny Duck came to sit under the tree. “We’ve come to help find your honk,” they said.
Missy and the cows wandered up from the bubbling brook. “We’ll help too,” they said.
“Cock-a-doodle-do, I will too!” Rooster landed on a branch above their heads.
Brownie read the riddle again. What is hard to find, but easy to keep?
“A worm is hard to find,” said Chicken Bess.
“But you can’t keep it and eat it too,” replied Danny Duck.
“A cool breeze is hard to find,” said Missy.
“But it always goes away,” sighed the other cows.
“It’s hard to find a rainbow,” said Rooster “and you can’t keep it at all.”
Greta looked around. When she first came to the barnyard it was hard getting used to the strange surroundings. But soon she learned the names of all the animals and one by one they became her friends. Now she had lost her honk and they came from all over the barnyard to help find it. Suddenly Greta knew the answer to the riddle and raised her wings in triumph.
“I know the answer! I do, I do!” she squawked.
The animals stared at her.
“Friends! The answer is friends!”
“I knew you would guess!” cried Brownie.
“Sometimes it seems hard to find friends but each of you has become my friend,” said Greta. “And it’s easy to keep your friends when you’re kind and helpful instead of selfish and rude like I was this morning.” Greta hung her head. “I am so sorry,” she whispered. “Thank you all for helping me understand the riddle!”
Chicken Bess and Danny Duck did a barnyard jig.
Missy and the cows mooed a happy moo.
Rooster crowed from the tree branch.
Brownie barked one loud bark and Greta Goose…
HONKED!
the end.
Question Time
1. Why did Greta honk and flap her wings at the cows?
2. What does Father Goose use to help Greta?
3. What helps Greta realize the answer to the riddle?
4. Why do you think Greta Goose lost her honk?
