CHILDREN’S BOOK & TOY BANK

Daniel and Katy are moving into a new house with their Mummy and Daddy. They like the new house. It is in a village with a village green, an old church and a village shop. The new house has a garden where they can play. Daddy says they can each have a small garden of their own. At the bottom of the garden is a low fence and over the fence is a wood. They decide they will to explore the wood one day.

Soon after they move in they all go into the garden to plant flowers and vegetables. Katy and Daniel are very proud to have their own garden. Daniel plants vegetables and Katy plants flower. Because there was some rain and also warm sunshine they soon began to grow. Every day they go to see their garden, and pull up any weeds. If the ground is dry they water the seeds. After a few days Daniel gets a bit bored and does not look after his garden. Soon his young vegetables are covered in weeds.

One morning Daniel and Katy looked out of a window and see that some of the plants in the garden had been eaten. This happened on the next day and on the day after that. Daddy said that he thought he knew what was eating the plants, and told Daniel and Katy that they would all get up early the next morning to see if he was right.

Early the next morning Mummy, Daddy, Daniel and Katy crept downstairs and peeped out of the living room window. There in the flowerbed they saw what was eating the plants. Two deer had jumped over the low fence and were eating the flowers and vegetables. Daddy said that he did not want all their plants eaten, and so he would build a very tall fence at the bottom of the garden to keep the deer out. Katy said that the deer would be hungry, and she looked as if she would cry. So Daddy said that he would put a gate in the fence so that they could leave some hay out every day in the wood for the deer. Katy and Daniel thought this was a very good idea, and so that is what they did. The deer came every day early in the morning and in the evening for the hay.

One  afternoon Daniel and Katy decided to explore the wood. They did not know that it was a very large wood and they soon became lost. It then began to get dark and they sat down next to a tall tree. They heard noises – a scraping noise in the leaves nearby - a squeaking in the branches over their heads - the screech of an owl. They were frightened and hugged each other tightly. They were even more frightened when they heard something move in the wood nearby.

When they saw that it was the two deer they felt less frightened but kept  still and quiet. The deer walked past very close to where Daniel and Katy sat. Then Daniel had an idea. He said they should follow the deer, because the deer might go to their house to look for hay. So, very quietly, they followed the deer through the wood, which was now getting much darker.

After a while they saw a light in the distance, and the gate to their garden. Then they saw Mummy and Daddy who were searching the wood looking for them. They all saw each other at the same time and ran to each other for a very happy hug. Mummy and Daddy were very pleased to see them safe and sound; and Daniel and Katy were extremely pleased and relieved to see Mummy and Daddy too.

They were all very grateful to the two deer, so the next day they left some root vegetables for the deer, which they love to eat as a special treat, to say thank you.

And what about Katy and Daniel’s garden? Well, later in the year Katy was able to pick some lovely bunches of flowers to give to Mummy to make the house look pretty. Daniel found a few sad looking vegetables among the weeds! He realised that you have to look after a garden if you wants to get good vegetables and flowers – and the next year he did just that!