Page 51 - Viva Real English 4 : Ebook

My mother told me that the peahen went away sometimes in the night. There were

some cats in the vicinity and I dreaded the thought that they might snatch the eggs.

Every morning I would go and take a look at the peahen. A fortnight later, when
I went to the balcony, I was aghast at what I saw: a cat was scurrying away with
an egg in its mouth. I shrieked at it, and in the hullabaloo it dropped the egg. I felt
very sad looking at the contents of the broken egg. I hoped that this would not
happen again.

The peahen continued to visit, without losing hope. One afternoon I heard my

mother calling out to me. I ran upstairs. I saw a teeny-weeny chick next to its
mother. I ran in to get the camera, and just at the moment the peahen got up
and another itsy-bitsy chick was there. They followed their mother, and while we
were looking at them the peahen flew from the roof onto the ground. One chick
followed. I just stared at it taking such a flight from the balcony. It was indeed not
a small height for a baby chick. How would it come up again?

vicinity : the area around shrieked : shouted loudly

dreaded : feared hullabaloo : a lot of loud noise
aghast : filled with horror and teeny-weeny : very small
surprise itsy-bitsy : very small

scurrying : running with quick short
steps
41