Story for children RASCAL THE ROOSTER

Years ago we took up for rent a portion of an old house. The house owner, an ex-police man, occupied one half of the building and let out the other half to us. He had a rooster and two hens with a dozen chicks. The very first day this rooster, a two footer chased me all over the place. I had never seen a stronger and bolder domestic cock before. He had 'Salem steel' beaks and firm wiry legs of iron. His eyes, blood red buttons, were full of self confidence. A picture of pride he was indeed. When he walked tall he would make you, a human being, feel like a pigmy. At the very first crack of dawn he would stand on the compound wall and let out a series of full throated 'cock-a-doodle-dos, flapping his wings, exhibiting his rippling biceps. He was not a cock but an accurate alarm clock. He was very jealous about his two hen-spouses. .Of the two hens, one brown and the other white... he liked the white more. Now and then he would scratch the earth with his paws and scoop out a fat worm and invite his favorite white hen-wife to have it, issuing a peculiar gurgling noise of fondness from his throat. I gave him the name Rascal.Rascal guarded the house, especially the back yard, like a dog. He had his own mentally drawn boundaries which no one except members of his master's family could cross. You could cross the Pakistan border but not this cockistan's border! .THE GREAT RESCUE!.I did not know why but Rascal was polite to women and girls. They were allowed to go near his spouses and chick- children. When men and boys tried to do it they had to face his worst wrath. The house owner's wife was very fond and proud of Rascal. “Look at him, he is not an ordinary cock he is right from Lord Muruga's flag” she boasted to my mother often. Velan, a buffalo- herd next door, himself a rascal, had an eye on Rascal. He offered to buy him for 50 rupees (in 1970)..House owner's wife spurned the offer with contempt. “I will not part with him even for a thousand. He is more than a son to me” she declared. Rascal had to his credit his own stories of bravery. On one occasion a stray dog tried to steal a chick. Rascal chased him to the end of the world raining painful pecks from his razor sharp bills and on another occasion a kite came swooping down to grab one of the chicks but there appeared on the scene from nowhere our enraged rooster exhibiting his bristled neck flumes and wing biceps. The kite’s liver turned into water. It changed its mind and flew away with its heart in its mouth. When things were going well like this one monsoon morning the usual cock a doodle do from Rascal was not heard. When the wife of the house owner went to the backyard there was no sign of Rascal . She ran helter skelter in panic. She woke up everyone in the house. She started wailing. Neighbors came running. They naturally thought that someone in our house died. Even though Rascal harassed me unendingly I missed him..The prime suspect was Velan who wanted to buy Rascal very badly. “Do something, You are an ex-policeman. File a complaint and get his house searched “ she pressed her husband. The retired police writer took up the matter seriously. A police jeep arrived on the scene. Two robust men in uniform stormed into Velan's house where they found Rascal the rooster under an inverted bamboo basket legs tied up in a jute bag. Rescued Rascal had a tearful reception from the house owner's wife. She hugged the bird like a mom who found her lost child. But it took about a week for Rascal's injured pride to heal. For days he did not crow at dawn. He remained huddled up in the hen house brooding over his humiliation at villain Velan’s hand. As we waited patiently, one early morning I heard a cock a doodle do. When I rushed to the window and looked at the back yard there he was standing majestically on the wall silhouetted against early morning sky, neck stretched beaks open in the act of crowing..Children's Story: STRIPY AND TABBY