Wriggle and Squirm At The Farm.

It was the first bright day since before the Christmas holidays, so Wriggle and Squirm decided to take advantage of the sunshine, and pay a visit to their good friend Rolly, the sheepdog who lived on Mr. Horrocks' Farm. Rolly was a kind fellow who often let them both sit chatting with him for positively hours. Sometimes he even allowed them to climb onto his back, so they could have a good view of everything, as they were transported round the farm by Rolly.

You'd have thought they were expected, since Rolly already had his best tea service laid out on the slate slab table which was placed in the centre of his kennel. The teapot was steaming hot, and there were three small chocolate cakes on a plate in the centre of the table. "My that looks delicious", said Squirm as he entered the room. "Oh, I see ", commented Rolly grumpily," You notice the food before you've even bothered to say hello to me. That's typical, that is". "No, honestly, Rolly", Squirm replied, " It's just that we weren't expecting you to have tea waiting for us. I didn't know anyone had told you we were coming to see you". " They didn't", Rolly answered, " I was just hoping I'd have some visitors because it's a nice day".

Well, in no time at all the three friends had made up, and were gathered round the table enjoying their afternoon snack, when the most earth shattering noise interrupted their conversation. The kennel shook, the light bulb overhead swayed madly, and the noise was deafening. Rolly fell off his seat, but managed to pull himself back onto his feet and made for the door , where he looked warily out to see what was causing such a din. There was Omer , the farmers' son, careering wildly round the field in an old green van. Omer wasn't allowed to drive on the roads because he had been in such a lot of trouble in the past that he'd been banned from driving for three years. In fact Omer was a very dangerous driver indeed. He never bothered to look to see if there was anything in front of his vehicle, he just drove crazily forwards expecting anything or anyone in the way to move out of the way pretty jolly fast. Let's face it most people did get out of his way quickly, or should I say, in the nick of time! By now both Wriggle and Squirm were watching Omer too, making lots of Tut-Tutting noises whenever Omer swerved or skidded in the mud. Now, during this display of stupidity on the part of Omer, and quite unbeknownst to Mrs. Rebel, (The mother of 4 robin children/ fledglings), the youngest of the four whose name was Florence, was taking her doll for a stroll in her new pushchair. Florence had spent ages dressing her doll nicely for their walk, with a blue blanket placed carefully over dolly to keep her warm. "Just in case it turns nippy before we return home", Flo told her doll.

Flo' came round the corner of the milking shed pushing dolly in front of her. She carefully threaded her way among the old machinery, to enter the field via the footpath instead of using the main gate. Mind you , I don't think it would have made any difference which way she went into the field, because , with Omer driving, an accident was always waiting to happen. The trouble was , this was more of a disaster than anything else. Flo' and dolly were just moving along the sixth furrow in from the edge of the field , when Omer turned to face them in the van. Of course he wasn't in the least looking where he was going, so he never even noticed them. In fact the first sign that anyone realised what was about to happen, was when Wriggles shreaked , then shouted at the top of his lungs for Flo' to run.

Rolly and Squirm joined in. " Run, Run, leave your doll", the threesome yelled, but to no avail. The noise which Omer was making with the revving of the vans' engine, was horrendous. Noone could have heard them, no matter how loudly they yelled.

Too late, Flo' saw the van coming towards her just seconds before it smashed into dollies pushchair, then carried on slithering and sliding its way round the field.With a shreak, Flo' let go of the pushchair, then was totally lost to sight. Squirm was sure she must have been crushed under the wheels of the van, but Rolly wasn't convinced. He thought he had seen Flo' jump into the air seconds before the van hit the doll. They all waited until Omer was far away on the other side of the field before they ran to where Flo' would be lying, probably injured. There wasn't a soul to be seen which was almost more worrying because Flo' might have been completely squished by the van . Squirm began to cry softly, while Wriggles looked up and down the nearest furrows, but still no sign of Flo'. "Quiet you two," began Rolly, " I think I can hear something". They stood, stock still, and silent, each leaning their heads to one side to hear better. Rollys' ears were twitching eagerly, awaiting confirmation that he had really heard a noise, when it came again. The sound of Flo' , sobbing, as she moaned, " He's killed my doll. I hate Omer, I do." Everyone rushed up to the tree where Flo' had perched herself, gabbling as they ran to her, " Are you hurt, Flo', did you get hit, have you been damaged, are your wings okay, how did you get away, we thought you'd been run over by him"...but Flo just carried on crying and moaning. She was far too upset about her doll to answer them.

In the meantime, Mrs. Rebel had heard the commotion. She raced to see if her daughter was alright. Soon her wings were round Flo, cuddling her, as well as soothing Flo with gentle words of love." There, there, my little precious, it's alright. Mums here to make things better. Don't be upset about dolly. We can soon get her another push chair, and your dad will fix dolly if she's been hurt". Both Flo and her mother flew down from the tree to join the others. They all gathered at the spot where the doll had been hit by Omer, and there she lay, covered in mud with a broken arm, one eye pushed into her head , where the exhaust from the van had caught her, and her other arm lying nearby in another furrow, squashed quite flat. Wriggles picked up the missing arm, and Squirm the doll, just as Omer turned towards their part of the field again.

"Come on, everyone, let's get out of here, before there's another accident", shouted Rolly. They ran as fast as they could to the field gate, with Mrs. Rebel and Flo flying in front of them. It was when they were all safe and sound outside the field that Wriggle whispered a few words to his brother , who nodded vigourously." Wait there, everyone", called Wriggles, as he and his brother returned to the field." We'll teach that Omer a thing or two."

They grabbed a long plank of wood from the woodpile .Holding one end each, they carried it into the centre of the field.Then they fetched the shovel which Omers father used for mucking out the pig sty. Between them, they managed to dig enough mud to completely cover the wood, which was now propped up at one end ,using huge stones which they had rolled into place. They waited for Omer to arrive driving as fast as ever, then when they were certain that he had noticed them waving their hankies in the air, they screamed and pointed for Omer to go the other way. Naturally Omer paid no attention to them at all. He put his foot hard down on the accelerator pedal, and drove at such a high speed towards them , that when he hit the plank of wood, he not only went up it with the two left side wheels of the van, but he did so that fast, that the van shot into the air and rolled over , landing on its roof, never to go again. The engine was crushed. The doors were stuck, and Omer was inside, covered with mud. If Omer had been smaller and more fragile, he would have been seriously hurt, but he was a big, burly fellow, so he was just a bit bruised from the parts of the van which had banged against him when it overturned.

However, by the time his father was told what had really happened, and his mother had sent him to bed without any dinner, Omer was miserable. He would never be able to harm anyone again with his dads farm machinery. "You'll never again be allowed on anything that moves on this farm," his father told him. Omer also had to apologise to Flo, give her all his pocket money for a new doll, as well as promise to stay away from anything with an engine from now on. He learnt his lesson, most certainly, because when he grew up, he became a very respected banker who was driven to work each day by his wife!