A Goat Called Willow E-Book

Helen Peters

• Herausgeber: Nosy Crow
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Jasmine Green Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 84

Beschreibung

The sixth in a fantastic series of animal stories for younger readers by Waterstones Children's Book Prize-shortlisted author Helen Peters, with beautiful black-and-white illustrations by Ellie Snowdon. Jasmine's dad is a farmer, and her mum is a large-animal vet, so Jasmine spends a lot of time caring for animals and keeping them out of trouble. Unfortunately, this often means she gets into hot water herself... Jasmine has secretly rescued a baby goat. She's gorgeous but she's really naughty! Will her amazing antics persuade Jasmine's parents to let her stay, or will Jasmine have to say goodbye to Willow for ever? Brilliant storytelling that will make you laugh and cry, this is Dick King-Smith for a new generation. Perfect for readers aged seven and up. Check out Jasmine's other adventures: A Piglet Called Truffle, A Duckling Called Button, A Sheepdog Called Sky and many more!

Leseprobe

Willow jumped off the swing and trotted over to a jumper that was lying by the see-saw. The class laughed as she sniffed it and started to nibble at the buttons.

“That’s my jumper!” cried Bella Bradley. “That goat’s eating my jumper!”

To my brother, Mark

H. P.

For my dad

E. S.

Chpater One

Kid For Sale

“You can buy yourselves a souvenir, or spend it on fairground rides and candyfloss, whichever you like,” said Mum, handing Jasmine and her best friend Tom a ten-pound note each. “Meet me back here at four o’clock, OK?”

“Wow, thanks, Mum,” said Jasmine, looking in delight at the ten-pound note.

“Thank you very much, Nadia,” said Tom.

“Can me and Ben go off on our own, too?” asked Jasmine’s little brother, Manu.

“Certainly not,” said Mum. “You two need to stay with me.”

“But that’s not fair!”

“When you’re ten, you can go off without me,” said Mum. “Jasmine wasn’t allowed to wander around the sheep fair on her own when she was six.”

“Come on, Sky,” said Jasmine, giving her sheepdog’s lead a little shake. “Let’s go and see the sheep.”

The Fenton Sheep Fair was held every year in a big field on a farm in the South Downs. There was a fairground, a craft tent and all sorts of stalls selling food and drink. But, for Jasmine and Tom, the main attraction was the sheep.

They made their way to the top of the field. Here, several rows of pens had been built from metal hurdles, with walkways between the rows. Each pen contained a small group of sheep, all washed and groomed to perfection.

A voice crackled over the sound system. “The next class to be judged will be Southdown ewe lambs. Could all entrants make their way to the show ring now, please.”

“You should have entered Lucky,” said Tom.

Lucky was Jasmine’s pet lamb. His mother had died when he was born, and Jasmine had bottle-fed him until he was old enough to live on grass.

“I wanted to enter him,” said Jasmine. “But Dad’s too busy with the cows to come to the fair, and Mum was working this morning.”

Jasmine’s dad was a farmer and her mum was a farm vet, so they were always busy looking after animals or doing office work.

“Let’s go and see the lambs in the ring,” said Tom. “I bet none of them are as cute as Lucky.”

They walked between the pens towards the show ring. In some of the pens, farmers were brushing their sheep’s woolly coats. One woman was oiling her sheep’s hooves to make them shine.

“Oh, look!” said Jasmine. She hurried along the walkway to get a closer look. “Oh, it’s so cute!”

In the far corner of the furthest pen sat a beautiful baby goat. Its coat was mainly brown, with patches of black and white on its legs and back, and a white blaze down the middle of its face. As Jasmine and Tom leaned over the gate, the kid greeted them with a high-pitched bleat.

“Oh, you’re so sweet,” said Jasmine. “Come here so I can stroke you.”

“It’s a girl,” said Tom. “Look, she’s for sale.”

He pointed to a hand-written notice tied to the bars of the pen.

FEMALE KID FOR SALE £40

Jasmine’s eyes widened. “Oh, I wish we could buy her.”

Tom laughed. “Imagine how mad your mum and dad would be if you did.”

Jasmine already had six animals of her own, and her parents had told her that she wasn’t allowed any more. She and Tom planned to run an animal rescue centre when they grew up. So far, they had rescued a runt piglet, a motherless duckling, an abandoned puppy, a rejected kitten, two baby sparrows and an orphaned lamb.

They had released the sparrows when they were fully grown, and Holly the kitten now belonged to Tom, but Jasmine had persuaded her parents to let her keep Truffle the pig, Button the duck, Lucky the lamb and Sky the sheepdog. She also had two cats called Toffee and Marmite.

“Anyway,” said Tom, “we’ve only got twenty pounds. We could only buy half of her.”

The little goat stood up, bleated and took a few tentative steps towards the children. Jasmine stroked her back.

“Her coat’s so soft,” she said. “Feel it, Tom. Sorry, little goat. I can’t buy you, but I hope you find a lovely home.”

“Mind your backs,” said a gruff voice behind them.

They turned to see a man leading two sheep on halters. They stepped away from the gate so he could open it and take the sheep inside.

“Excuse me,” said Jasmine, in her politest voice. “Is this your kid?”

He grunted in a tone that Jasmine understood to mean “Yes”.

“She’s beautiful,” said Jasmine. “How old is she?”

“Four weeks,” he said, taking the halter off one of the ewes. “If you’re not going to buy it, clear off. I’ve had enough time-wasters asking stupid questions.”

“Actually, I’m thinking about buying her,” she said, giving him a look that she hoped made it clear she was a serious farmer about to do a deal.

“Well, don’t think about it much longer. I’m heading off shortly.”

A flicker of hope rose inside Jasmine. If nobody bought the goat today, maybe she could persuade her parents to let her buy it later.

“What will you do if you don’t sell her today?” she asked.

“Shoot it.”

“Shoot it!” Jasmine was so shocked that her words came out as a squeal. “No! Why would you do that?”

“The mother just died,” he said, “and I don’t have time to bottle-feed it. I was going to shoot it yesterday, but since I was coming here, I thought I might as well bring it and see if anyone fancied hand-rearing it. Seems like nobody else has the time either, though. I’ll shoot it as soon as I get back.”

Jasmine was suddenly filled with determination. She had no idea how she was going to manage it, but she knew one thing. She wasn’t going to allow this tiny animal to be shot.

“We’ll buy her,” she said.

Tom gave her a worried look.

“We haven’t got all the money with us now,” Jasmine said, “but we can give you twenty pounds and pay the rest later.”

“Where do you live?” he asked.

“Oak Tree Farm. In Westcombe.”

He looked at her with slightly more respect. “So you’re Mike Green’s girl.”

Jasmine nodded.

“Is your dad here, then?”

“No, but my mum is.”

“And they don’t mind you buying a goat?”

“Of course not,” said Jasmine, crossing her fingers. “They love goats. We can’t take her home right now, though. We’ll have to get everything ready. Would you be able to deliver her tomorrow?”

“Martin!” called somebody from the other side of the pen. “How are you? Haven’t seen you for ages.”

The two men started to chat. Tom grabbed Jasmine’s sleeve.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

“What?” said Jasmine innocently. “Mum said we could buy a souvenir. She never said it couldn’t be alive.”

“You know she won’t let you buy her.”

“She doesn’t need to know,” said Jasmine. “I’ve got enough money saved up.”

“But what about—”

“Tom, do you want this beautiful little goat to be killed tonight?”

Tom sighed. “Of course I don’t.”

“So don’t worry about anything else. We’ll work it all out later. The only thing that matters right now is that we save her life.”

Chapter Two

It’s Not Going to be Easy

Once they had convinced the farmer, whose name was Mr Evans, that they were serious about buying the baby goat, they paid him twenty pounds and he agreed to deliver her at ten o’clock the following morning, as he was going to be in the area anyway. Jasmine asked him to drive into the field from the gate that led out to the lane. That way, he wouldn’t need to come into the farmyard, and no one else would see him arrive.

“We just saved an animal’s life,” said Jasmine, as they made their way to the show ring.

“I’m glad we spent our money on a goat instead of fairground rides,” said Tom. “We are the Animal Rescue Club, after all.”

“Exactly,” said Jasmine.

“When we have our rescue centre, this is what we’ll be doing all the time.”

“What shall we call her?” asked Tom.

Jasmine gazed around the field. Her eyes lit on a huge weeping willow tree in the corner.

“What do you think about Willow?” she asked.

“Willow,” said Tom. “That’s a good name for a goat.”

“How are we going to keep her hidden?” said Jasmine. “She’ll need a shed. Goats can’t stay outdoors all the time like sheep. They need shelter. But she’ll need grass, too, with a fence round it, so…”

Tom’s eyes lit up. “I know! The field where the sheep are. There’s that old chicken run in the corner.”

“Oh, yes,” said Jasmine. “With the little shed. That will be perfect.”

“What about when your dad checks the sheep, though?” said Tom. “He’ll see her if she’s out in the run.”

“He checks them early in the morning and in the evening,” said Jasmine, “so she’ll be in the shed then. It will all work out fine. We just need to clean out the shed and bed it down. Can you come back to ours after the fair?”

Tom made a face. “No, we’re going out to dinner. With some friends of my parents that I don’t even like.”

Jasmine laughed. “Can you come tomorrow morning, then? Dad usually checks the sheep at about half past six, so if you come at eight, he’ll be back in the yard and we can go and get the shed ready.”

Tom nodded. “I’ll tell Mum we’re taking Sky for an early walk.”