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To Whistle

Princess Rachel and Ms. Duck were the best of friends. Ms. Duck could fly and sometimes she would run and begin flapping her wings and swoop around the sky. Then she'd come down and Rachel would grab onto her lags and they would fly around together. The ground was so far away and they would soar over forests, oceans and all over.

One day Princess Rachel and Ms. Duck were walking through the woods. They passed trees and bushes. They saw a fox run by one time and a big deer pass a little later. They also saw lots and lots of birds.

There were bluebirds and red robins. There were blue jays and hawks and even eagles. They saw chickens and roosters, geese and wrens. There was every kind of bird you can imagine.

All of the birds sang their different songs. Some went tweet, tweet and others went cluck, cluck. They heard a twitter, twitter and even a cock-a-doodle-doo.

Duck called back to the birds one time, whistling a tweet, tweet that sounded just like a bird call. Rachel blew out a big breath… But there was no whistle.

Sadly Rachel turned to Duck and said sadly, "I don't know how to whistle".

Duck looked at Rachel and said, "Well then, we'll just HAVE to teach you".

Ms. Duck ran around calling all of the birds together. Each and every one of the birds in the forest came out. They saw woodpeckers and doves, ravens and hummingbirds. Every bird they could think of. They even saw two cows come up named Ernie and Bert. They had a red bird and a blue jay on their heads.

Everyone formed a big circle with Rachel and Duck in the middle. Duck explained the problem. "Rachel can't whistle" she said.

All of the birds were very concerned and wanted to do whatever they could to teach Rachel how to whistle like they can. So they all sang out their special songs. Rachel heard a lot of tweet, tweet sounds, some hum, hum and shaweee, shaweee. She even heard a caw, caw and a ribbit. But that one wasn't a bird at all. It was a frog who had come along for the ride.

Rachel listened to all of the different sounds. She tried again, opened her mouth a little and blew!

But nothing happened. Air was the only thing that came out.

Then the cows gave it a try. They called out to Rachel and said "Moo, Moo, you need to keep your lips toogether".

This made very good sense, so Rachel pursed her lips together and tried another time. She blew as hard as she could.

But all that come out was more air. "Oh" Rachel said sadly. "I wonder if I'll ever learn to whistle."

Then she heard something, slither, slither. Down on the ground was a small worm. Rachel leaned down and scooped him up. It was Slimy the worm.

Rachel and Duck explained to Slimy that they'd tried everything, but Rachel still couldn't whistle.

Slimy said "I know just what to do, hold me close to your ear." Rachel held Slimy close to her ear and listened closely. Whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper.

"Ah, ha!" Rachel understood now. She put Slimy back on the ground, put her lips together, moved her tongue and blew.

She made the most beautiful whistle that anyone had ever heard. She sounded just like the birds.

She was so excited that she invited everyone back to her house for dinner. They had a great dinner and all went up to Rachel's room to bed. The birds rested all over her bed while the two cows, Ernie and Bert, lay down at the foot of the bed.

It was a wonderful day.

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