Merry Meerkat Madness by Ian Whybrow

Author:Ian Whybrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
Published: 2013-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

They stood back while he settled himself on the pointy end of the egg and bent forward to press his ear against it. “It’s not easy,” he muttered. “This shell’s really thick. Wait.”

The Really Mads held their breath. For a while there was nothing but the usual desert song of rustling cicadas, calling birds, and snorting animals.

The waiting got too much for Mimi. “I’m sure I can hear something!” she whispered. “Like a chip-chip or something.”

“You mean a sort of tapping?” breathed Uncle, delighted.

“No, it’s a sort of a cheep. I can hear it now, too,” said Skeema. “What do you think, Fledgie? Is that a little voice in there?”

“What’s it saying?” whispered Mimi urgently. “Tell me, tell Mimi!”

“Give us a chance! Shussshhh!” scolded Fledgie. “Wait. I’ve got it now. It’s a voice. There it is again…”

Now Uncle lost his patience. He was bursting to know. “What’s the voice saying, by all that’s tense and teasing?” he demanded.

Fledgie pulled himself upright and spoke. “It was ever so faint, but I think it said: ‘Mom, where are you? Too cold.’”

“Is that all?” gasped Uncle.

“That’s it,” replied Fledgie. “And now it’s gone quiet again.”

“It’s Sprintina’s last chickie! It’s got to be! We’ve found him!” cried Little Dream, hardly able to contain himself.

“Now, now,” said Uncle. “Let’s not get carried away, Dreamie,” said Uncle kindly. “I know it said ‘Mom.’ And I understand that mother ostriches bond with their chicks by talking to them while they’re still inside the shell. So it might be Sprintina’s chickie, but we don’t know for sure, do we?”

“Then we have to take the egg to Sprintina and find out!” cried Skeema, who felt much the same as his brother. The trouble was that, try as he might, he couldn’t think up a plan for moving it.

“Far too big and heavy!” sighed Uncle. “Why, the whole mob of us—Fledgie included—could hardly lift it! And it’s almost nighttime. If we don’t dash home soon, or at least get below ground, we won’t be able to survive the cold.”

“But if we leave the egg by itself in the open, the chickie will die and never see its mother!” wailed Little Dream.

Instead of talking, Mimi was busy moving the pile of ostrich feathers that Fledgie had collected up. “Now, Mimi! Really!” scolded Uncle. “This is no time for thinking about adding to your fancy headgear! We have a serious problem!”

Mimi was very proud of her headband, and quite rightly. She was the only meerkat princess in the Kalahari to wear a crown decorated with porcupine quills and the feathers of a secretary bird. But for once, her mind was not on herself. “Well, the rest of you can go back to the burrow if you like,” she said. “Or you can go and spend the night in a bolthole somewhere. I intend to stay here and keep the chickie warm!”

“It’s all very well you warming the chickie,” said Uncle. “But how exactly are you going to keep from freezing?”

“The same way ostriches do!” cried Mimi triumphantly.

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