06 We Know All the Birds

We Know All the Birds Don Mini walked easily, straight down the side of the great tree-trunk. Little Billy climbed carefully after him, from one branch to the next. Soon, below them, they began to smell the revolting hot stench of the Gruncher's breath, and the orange-red smoke was now billowing up into the lower branches in thick clouds. 'What does he look like?' Little Billy whispered. 'Nobody knows,' Don Mini answered. 'He makes so much steam and smoke you can never see him. If you are behind him you can sometimes

catch a glimpse of little bits of him because all the smoke is being blown out in the front. Some Minpins say they have seen his back legs, huge and black and very hairy, shaped like lions' legs but ten times as big. And it is rumoured that his head is like an enormous crocodile's head, with rows and rows and rows of sharp pointed teeth. But nobody really knows. Mind you, he must have gigantic nose-holes to be able to blow out all that smoke.' They stayed still, listening, and they could hear the Gruncher pawing the ground at the base of the tree with his giant hooves and snorting with greed. 'He smells you,' Don Mini said. 'He knows you aren't far away. He'll wait forever to get you now. He adores humans and he doesn't catch them very often. Humans are like strawberries and cream to him. You see, for months he's been living on a diet of Minpins, and a thousand Minpins is not even a snack for him. The brute is ravenous.' Little Billy and Don Mini climbed back up the tree to where all the other Minpins were gathered. They seemed glad to see Little Billy come safely back. 'Stay up here with us,' they said to him. 'We'll look after you.'

Just then, a lovely blue swallow alighted on a branch not far away, and Little Billy saw a mother Minpin and her two children climb quite casually on to the swallow's back. Then the swallow took off and flew away with its passengers seated comfortably between its wings. 'Good Heavens!' cried Little Billy. 'Is that a special tame bird?' 'Not at all,' Don Mini said. 'We know all the birds. The birds are our friends. We use them all the time for going places. That lady is taking her children to see their grandmother who lives in another forest about fifty miles away. They'll be there in less than an hour.'

'Can you talk to them?' Little Billy asked. 'To the birds, I mean?' 'Of course we can talk to them,' Don Mini said. 'We can summon them any time we want if we have to go somewhere. How else would we get our supplies of food up here? The Red-Hot Gruncher makes it impossible for us to walk anywhere in the wood.' 'Do the birds like doing this for you?' Little Billy asked. 'They'll do anything for us,' Don Mini said. 'They love us and we love them. We store food for them inside the trees so they don't starve when the icy-cold winter comes along.'

Suddenly all sorts of birds were alighting on the branches of the tree around where Little Billy was sitting, and the Minpins were climbing on to their backs in droves. Most of the Minpins had small sacks slung over their shoulders. 'At this time of day they go off to collect food,' Don Mini said. 'All the grown-ups have to help in getting food for the community. The population of

each tree looks after itself. Our large trees are like your cities and towns, and the small trees are like your villages.' It was an astonishing sight. Every kind of wonderful bird was flying in and perching on the branches of the great tree, and as soon as one landed a Minpin would climb on to its back and off they would go.