9. The Pig, the Bullocks, the Sheep, the Pony and the Nanny-goat  |   <<   Back   |   Home   |   Next   >>

No harm intended, no profit made.

The Pig, the Bullocks, the Sheep, the Pony and the Nanny-goat

At that moment, Severus' mother came back from shopping in the village. She drove her car into the yard and got out. She was carrying a bottle of milk in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other.

The first thing she saw was the gigantic brown hen towering over little Severus. She dropped the bottle of milk.

Then Grandma started shouting at her from the rooftop, and when she looked up and saw Grandma's head sticking up through the tiles, she dropped the bag of groceries.

'How about that then, eh Mary?' Grandma shouted. 'I'll bet you've never seen a hen as big as that! That's Severus' giant hen, that is!'

'But... but... but...' stammered Severus' mother.

'It's Severus' magic medicine!' Grandma shouted. 'We've both of us had it, the hen and I!'

'But how in the world did you get up on the roof?' cried the mother.

'I didn't!' cackled the old woman. 'My feet are still standing on the floor in the living-room!'

This was too much for Severus' mother to understand. She just goggled and gaped. She looked as though she was going to faint.

A second later, Severus' father appeared. His name was Mr Snape. Mr Snape was a small man with bandy legs and a huge head. He was a kind father to Severus, but he was not an easy person to live with because even the smallest things got him all worked up and excited. The hen standing in the yard was certainly not a small thing, and when Mr Snape saw it he started jumping about as though something was burning his feet. 'Great heavens!' he cried, waving his arms. 'What's this? What's happened? Where did it come from? It's a giant hen! Who did it?'

'I did,' Severus siad.

'Look at me!' Grandma shouted from the rooftop. 'Never mind about the hen! What about me?'

Mr Snape looked up and saw Grandma. 'Shut up, Grandma,' he said. It didn't seem to surprise him that the old girl was sticking up through the roof. It was the hen that excited him. He had never seen anything like it. But then who had?

'It's fantastic!' Mr Snape shouted, dancing round and round. While he was doing this, the big brown hen sat down in the middle of the yard and went cluck- cluck- cluck... cluck- cluck- cluck- cluck- cluck.

Everyone stared at it.

When it stood up again, there was a brown egg lying there. The egg was the size of a football.

'That egg would make scrambled eggs for twenty people!' Mrs Snape said.

'Severus!' Mr Snape shouted. 'How much of this medicine have you got?'

'Lots,' Severus said. 'There's a big saucepanful in the kitchen, and this bottle here's nearly full.'

'Come with me!' Mr Snape yelled, grabbing Severus by the arm. 'Bring the medicine! For year and years I've been trying to breed bigger and bigger animals. Bigger bulls for beef. Bigger pigs for pork. Bigger sheep for mutton...'

They went to the pigsty first.

Severus gave a spoonful of medicine to the pig.

The pig blew smoke from its nose and jumped about all over the place. Then it grew and grew.

In the end, it looked like this...

They went to the herd of fine black bullocks that Mr Snape was trying to fatten for the market.

Severus gave each of them some medicine, and this is what happened...

Then the sheep...

He gave some to his grey pony, Jack Frost. And finally, just for fun, he gave some to Alma, the nanny-goat...

9. The Pig, the Bullocks, the Sheep, the Pony and the Nanny-goat  |   <<   Back   |   Home   |   Next   >>