The disappearance of Mr Pinkerton's Chook... by Melisand

Mr Pinkerton has a chicken that can tap, a cow that can sing and a pig that can play the trumpet. Chook, as the chicken is called, is a golden brown hen with brilliant yellow feet the colour of the sun on a clear, summer’s day. The cow, Nina, is plain black with a baby blue tail. The pig has a white droopy moustache and a curly white tail, he is called Sam. Mr Pinkerton lives in a small town called Sour Lemon. He has a farm of his own in Sour Lemon called Yellow Lemon Farm. This is the story of the disappearance of Mr Pinkerton’s tap dancing chook…

As he always did on a Monday morning Mr Pinkerton had his favourite breakfast of squashed bananas and a glass of homemade lemonade. After breakfast Mr Pinkerton took Chook’s bird seed and tap shoes, Nina’s basil leaves and microphone and Sam’s carrot chunks and trumpet out from the old wooden cupboard under the creaky stairs and carried the load down to the pens.

Mr Pinkerton first visited Sam’s pen dropping off his carrots and trumpet. Sam insisted Mr Pinkerton listen to him practice playing ‘The Time Warp’ which was the song he was going to play at the kitchen concert. (Mr Pinkerton believes that all the kitchen utensils are bored of hearing only pots bang, water boil and knives chop; so he hosts a kitchen concert every month!)

Next Mr Pinkerton strolled over to Nina’s pen to deliver her leaves and microphone. Nina persuaded Mr Pinkerton to listen to her sing her kitchen concert song ‘Moves Like Jagger’.

After he had enjoyed Nina’s singing he headed off towards Chook’s pen. As he approached he realized something wasn’t right… then he just stopped dead and stared. Chook wasn’t there. In Chook’s hut where she normally slept her doon was neatly folded on her hay and feather mattress and her metal plate (for tapping) was completely bare.

Mr Pinkerton shuffled sadly bck to Sam and Nina with the dreadful news. Nina and Sam were very, very sad. They hated to see Mr Pinkerton looking so miserable. Sam was so sad that his curly white tail hung like a wilting flower. Nina knew that Chook was absolutely vital for a successful kitchen concert because Chook was to tap while Nina and Sam were singing and trumpeting.

“Let’s not panic yet,” suggested Sam. “Perhaps if she’s not back by tomorrow morning, we can start looking then.”

Unfortunately the next day Chook hadn’t returned. Worried, Mr Pinkerton was up early but didn’t feel like his usual Tuesday breakfast of apple crumble and grap juice. He was in a gloomy moo9d, a million thoughts about what could have happened to Chook raced around inside his head.

Nina and Sam shared their ideas for finding Chook. Mr Pinkerton decided to use Sam’s method first. Sam’s idea was to see if they could find a trail in Chook’s pen and if they did to follow it.


Sam, Nina and Mr Pinkerton did find a trail and it appeared to have been made by gumboots. They followed the trail of gumboot prints which lead, surprisingly enough, to the local supermarket. Disappointed, Mr Pinkerton realized they were his gumboots that had made the trail. He remembered that he had crossed Chook’s pen to ask her if she wanted anything when he went to do the shopping last week!

They were downcast as they headed back to Yellow Lemon Farm as they hadn’t found any clues as to where Chook was. When they got back Nina explained her idea that she had thought of the night before. Her idea was to sniff the grass around Yellow Lemon Farm to see if she could detect Chook’s smell.

“… or the smell of a stranger’s footsteps, if someone has stolen her,” Nina finished rather uncertainly.

Sam added, “and I could ask any critter that I come across if they have seen Chook recently.”

Mr Pinkerton said he was glad of their suggestions. “Please give it a go!” he said encouragingly.

Later that day, Mr Pinkerton talked to his helpful cow and pig about their findings. He got two puzzling answers.

Nina reported back that she had smelt Chook’s footsteps through the orange gate at the end of the vegie patch.

Sam informed Mr Pinkerton that he had asked ants, worms and ladybugs. The ants told him that they had heard Chook muttering to herself about Aunty Goose and Cousin Duckling. The worms said they had felt the ground vibrating as she put things in what seemed to be a suitcase, and the ladybugs had replied that they had seen Chook leave through the orange gate at the bottom of the vegie patch just before sunrise at 5 o’clock on Monday morning.

Mr Pinkerton went to bed that night feeling incredibly confused. But when he woke up the next morning he was confident that he would find Chook that very day. Half way through his usual Wednesday breakfast of pancakes and orange juice he heard the unmistakable tapping of his beloved Chook. He jumped up and rushed outside.

“Where have you been Chook?” he exclaimed.

Chook replied (with a lot of excited clucking “cluck… I was at Aunty… cluck… Goose’s looking after… cluck… Cousin Duckling! Did… cluck… you forget that?”

“I think I must have,” Mr Pinkerton replied sheepishly. “But it is cause for a celebration! We will have the kitchen concert today!”

All the kitchen utensils enjoyed the surprise early kitchen concert. Sam and Nina were very happy to see Mr Pinkerton was his cheerful self again. In fact, Sam was so happy that his little white moustache was turned up at the ends like a smiling mouth!