What a hunt there was that afternoon for those vanished hens! It was really astonishing that not one could be found. Jack couldn’t understand it! They were nowhere on the hill. They were not even in the little cave where Jack had hidden them the day before, because he looked. They were not among the raspberry canes. They were not in Daisy’s field. They were not under the hedges. They were not anywhere at all, it seemed!
Nora grew more and more unhappy as the day passed. She felt that she really couldn’t face the others if the hens were not found. She made a hidey-hole in the tall bracken and crouched there, watching the others returning to the camp for supper. They had had no tea and were hungry and thirsty. So was Nora - but nothing would make her go and join the others!
No - she would rather stay where she was, all alone, than sit down with Mike, Jack, and Peggy while they were still so cross and upset.
“Well, the hens are gone!” said Mike, as he joined Jack going down the hill to the beach.
“It’s strange,” said Jack. “They can’t have flown off the island, surely!”
“It’s dreadful, I think,” said Peggy; “we did find their eggs so useful to eat.”
Nora sat alone in the bracken. She meant to sleep there for the night. She thought she would never, never be happy again.
The others sat down by the fire, whilst Peggy made some cocoa, and doled out a rice pudding she had made. They wondered where Nora was.
“She’ll be along soon, I expect,” said Peggy.
They ate their meal in silence - and then - then - oh, what a lovely sound came to their ears! Yes, it was “cluck, cluck, cluck!” And walking sedately down to the beach came all six hens! The children stared and stared and stared!