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Baydan Bunny and his friends, Connor
Chick, Dorie Duck, and Lexy Lamb.
"The waves are high. I’m afraid,"
Connor Chick cried.
"Whose idea was it to build a raft
and go for a sail anyway?" Lexy Lamb asked.
"It was Baydan’s idea," Dorie Duck
whimpered. "I don’t like these big waves. I’m scared too."
Baydan Bunny was afraid himself, but
didn’t let his friends know. "I didn’t know we were going to have a storm.
Let’s look at this as an adventure." He tried to smile but when a huge
wave crashed over the raft, nearly knocking all of them into the raging
sea, Baydan started to cry, as did the others.
"I see land," Connor shouted,
pointing to the east. "It’s an island."
"Maybe the waves will carry us
there. We seem to be heading straight for it," Lexy sighed.
She was right. The waves washed the
raft and the four tired animals onto the beach. They lay in the sand,
among seashells, crabs, and flotsam. The rain stopped and the clouds
turned fluffy and white, instead of dark gray. "At least we’re safe now,"
Dorie quacked. "I wonder where we are?" She stood up and waddled across
the sand towards some palm trees.
"I hope there are no cannibals or
horrible creatures on this island," Conner frowned.
"Don’t worry about it. I’m sure
there aren’t," Baydan said.
"Wait for me, Dorie. I’ll come with
you," Lexy shouted, running towards the duck.
Connor and Baydan walked up and down
the beach. "Look at all the seashells. I think I’ll gather some for my
shell collection," Conner chirped.
Baydan looked up into the trees. "I
think there are coconuts growing on those palms. If I climb the tree and
pick some, maybe the others won’t be so angry with me." He hopped over to
the bottom and looked up. "Those are the strangest looking coconuts I’ve
ever seen. Since when are coconuts pink?" He climbed the tree and when he
reached the top he gasped. "These aren’t coconuts. They’re Easter Eggs!"
He started to laugh. His nose twitched and his fluffy tail wiggled back
and forth. He picked an armful and climbed back down.
When Connor had gathered plenty of
shells, he carried them over to Baydan. "What have you got there?" he
asked, dropping the shells in the sand.
"Easter Eggs. Aren’t they pretty?"
Baydan smiled. "Some of them are chocolate and some are real eggs,
depending on what tree you pick them from."
"Wow! Easter eggs! Easter Egg
Island," Connor squeaked.
"Look what we found," Dorie shouted,
running towards the bunny and the chick.
"We found Easter eggs," Lexy began
to baa.
"Baydan found some too. We’re going
to call this place Easter Egg Island," Connor said.
The four of them feasted on
chocolate eggs until they were full. "I don’t care if we ever get off this
island now," Dorie quacked.
The next morning, before the sun was
too high in the sky, they picked more Easter eggs and gobbled them down.
They did this every day for a week. On the eighth day they got up as usual
to gather eggs. "There are no more eggs on this tree," Baydan said.
"There are none on this tree
either," Connor pouted.
They went from tree to tree, all
over the island. There wasn’t one Easter egg left on any of the trees. "We
ate them all," Lexy frowned. "We were greedy and ate too many eggs at one
time. Now there are none left."
"Oh no! What are we going to do?"
Dorie cried. "We’re going to starve to death."
"When I was down at the lagoon,"
Baydan began, "I saw fish in the water. They were swimming through the
coral."
"I like fish," Dorie smiled,
realizing she wouldn’t starve after all.
"Lambs don’t eat fish. Neither do
bunnies or chicks," Lexy replied.
"What do lambs eat?" Dorie asked.
"We eat flowers and grass most of
the time," Lexy said.
"There’s a lot of that on the
island. What about bunnies? What do you eat, Baydan?" Dorie questioned.
"Bunnies eat carrots, turnips,
leeks, and other vegetables," he answered.
"When Lexy and I were exploring the
island, I saw some vegetables. What about you, Connor? What do chicks
eat?" Dorie enquired.
"Chicks eat seed and corn. It’s
delicious, but not as good as Easter eggs," Connor answered.
"There’s something for all of us on
this island. Maybe in a few weeks the Easter eggs will grow back. We just
have to remember not to be greedy and just eat a few each day instead of
every egg on the tree," Dorie said.
Dorie was right. The Easter eggs
grew back on the trees after a month. They knew that if they ate them all,
they’d have to wait for a long time before they would grow back, so each
day Dorie ate fish, Connor ate his seed, Baydan nibbled on wild carrots,
and Lexy ate grass and flowers. Each night, before they went to sleep,
Baydan climbed the tree and picked one egg for each of them.
"I love Easter Egg Island," Connor
smiled.
"Me too," the others answered.
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