George's Marvellous Medicine Teacher Resource by Gillian Howell

Author:Gillian Howell
Format: mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Literary, Teaching Methods & Materials, Education, Reading
ISBN: 9781407100432
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2008-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

The Brown Hen

George stood in the farmyard looking up at the roof. The old farmhouse had a

fine roof of pale red tiles and tall chimneys.

There was no sign of Grandma. There was only a song-thrush sitting on one of the

chimney-pots, singing a song. The old wurzel's got stuck in the attic, George

thought. Thank goodness for that.

Suddenly a tile came clattering down from the roof and fell into the yard. The

song-thrush took off fast and flew away.

Then another tile came down.

Then half a dozen more.

And then, very slowly, like some weird monster rising up from the deep,

Grandma's head came through the roof . . .

Then her scrawny neck . . .

And the tops of her shoulders . . .

'How'm I doing, boy!' she shouted. 'How's that for a bash up?'

'Don't you think you'd better stop now, Grandma?' George called out . . .

'I have stopped!' she answered. 'I feel terrific! Didn't I tell you I had magic

powers! Didn't I warn you I had wizardry in the tips of my fingers! But you

wouldn't listen to me, would you? You wouldn't listen to your old Grandma!'

'You didn't do it, Grandma,' George shouted back to her. 'I did it! I made you a

new medicine!'

'A new medicine? You? What rubbish!' she yelled.

'I did! I did!' George shouted.

'You're lying as usual!' Grandma yelled. 'You're always lying!'

'I'm not lying, Grandma. I swear I'm not.'

The wrinkled old face high up on the roof stared down suspiciously at George.

'Are you telling me you actually made a new medicine all by yourself?' she

shouted.

'Yes, Grandma, all by myself.'

'I don't believe you,' she answered. 'But I'm very comfortable up here. Fetch me

a cup of tea.'

A brown hen was pecking about in the yard close to where George was standing.

The hen gave him an idea. Quickly, he uncorked the medicine bottle and poured

some of the brown stuff into the spoon. 'Watch this, Grandma!' he shouted. He

crouched down, holding out the spoon to the hen.

'Chicken,' he said. 'Chick-chick-chicken. Come here. Have some of this.'

Chickens are stupid birds, and very greedy. They think everything is food. This

one thought the spoon was full of corn. It hopped over. It put its head on one

side and looked at the spoon. 'Come on, chicken,' George said. 'Good chicken.

Chick-chick-chick.'

The brown hen stretched out its neck towards the spoon and went peck. It got a

beakful of medicine.

The effect was electric.

'Oweee!' shrieked the hen and it shot straight up into the air like a rocket. It

went as high as the house.

Then down it came again into the yard, splosh. And there it sat with its

feathers all sticking straight out from its body. There was a look of amazement

on its silly face. George stood watching it. Grandma up on the roof was watching

it, too.

The hen got to its feet. It was rather shaky. It was making funny gurgling

noises in its throat. Its beak was opening and shutting. It seemed like a pretty

sick hen.

'You've done it in, you stupid boy!' Grandma shouted. 'That hen's going to die!

Your father'll be after you now! He'll

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.