By Caroline Owens
Illustrated by Valerie Bean
They played together every day. Emma dressed Peep in doll clothes. They had picnics in the pasture. They climbed into the tree house and told secrets. Then Emma let Peep run free in the barnyard till dinnertime. Until today, Peep had thought she was the luckiest chicken in the world.
Then she heard Emma's father talking to The Chicken Soup Man. Emma and Peep were playing hide and seek in the hayloft when they saw the black truck with a steaming bowl of soup painted on the side. Everyone in the neighborhood knew this truck. The Chicken Soup Man was always looking for old hens to put in his famous Chicken 'N Potato Soup.
Emma's father greeted his visitor.
"How's the farm?" asked The Chicken Soup Man.
"Biggest potato crop ever. Don't know what I'll do with all those potatoes. How's the soup business?"
"Booming! Don't know where I'll find enough ingredients for all that soup." "I can help in the chicken department," said Emma's father.
"Come back Saturday and take my old hens. On my farm, every animal has to pay its way."
Emma gasped and hugged Peep.
"Don't worry," Dad smiled, "Peep is your pet."
back to Parents and Children Together Online Issue 7
Comments or Questions?
Parents and Children Together Online
The Clearinghouse on Reading
2805 East 10th Street, Suite 140
Bloomington, IN 47408-2698
reading@indiana.edu
back to Parents and Children Together Online
Copyright Notice: Please note that the contents of Parents and Children Together Online and its associated web pages are copyright 2002 EDINFO Press and are not to be reproduced in any form (including CD-ROM) without the express permission of EDINFO Press.