The Secret

When is your birthday, Simon?

My birthday is on the October 11, but I’ll let you into a secret. I have only had one birth day, the day I came into this world, and so have you, but we remember the special day when we came into the world by celebrating with a party or an outing and we sing a special song. Let’s sing it now. Somebody somewhere is sure to have his or her birthday today.

Max's birthday is in March, but an outing is always good fun, so when it was Daddy’s birthday on the first day of autumn he told Max that they were going for a walk and should take a basket with them, Max was happy, but he did not know what the basket was for.

Happy Birthday to you, 

Happy Birthday dear S O M E B O D Y, 

Happy Birthday to you.

“It’s a secret,” said Daddy.

“What kind of a secret?” asked Max.

“It’s a secret secret,” said Daddy.

What’s a secret secret?” asked Max.

“It’s a secret I am not sure about, Max. Let’s just go for a walk and wait and see,” said Daddy.

Max tried to guess what the secret was.

“Is it a water secret?”

“No, it isn’t,” said Daddy.

“Is it a flying secret?”

“No.”

“Is it an ice-cream secret?”

“No,” said Daddy.

Max could not think of anything else to ask about, so he put on his wellies and a jacket, borrowed Mummy’s shopping basket, and Max and his Daddy set off for their walk.

“Don’t forget your gloves, Max!” said Mummy.

“I don’t want any gloves, Mummy. It isn’t cold enough.”

“Put them in your pocket, Max,” said Mummy. “You might change your mind.”

“I’m taking my gloves, too,” said Daddy.

“Is it a birthday secret, Daddy?”

“Not exactly. You’ll see.”

They soon came to Farmer Giles’s farm.

“Where are we going?” asked Max.

“Just through Farmer Giles’s fields,” said Daddy.

Max was excited.

“Is it an animal secret?” he asked.

Max loved animal secrets because there were usually wild animals in a zoo or farm animals in a farm at the end of the secret.

“Not this time, Max,” said Daddy.

Now Max was disappointed, but not for long.

As they were walking along the edge of Farmer Giles’s field, Max suddenly spotted something. It was a berry and lit looked good enough to eat.

“Try one,” said Daddy. “You might like them.”

“They look a bit like strawberries, but they are not red,” said Max.

“Strawberries grow on little plants on the ground, Max,” Daddy said, “but these berries grow on bushes.”

Max liked the the fruity berries. They were juicy and made up of little balls stuck together. You could eat the little black balls one by one, or you could eat the whole berry at once.

The only problem is that when you try to pick them. The bushes prick you with their thorns.

“These berries are called blackberries and they grow on thorny bushes,” said Daddy. “The thorns are to stop the birds eating the berries.”

“I can’t see any birds,” said Max, “but the thorns are stopping Max eating.”

“I have a good idea,” said Daddy. “Put your gloves on. I’m going to wear mine.”

So Max and his Daddy put on their gloves so that they would not feel the thorns when they were picking the blackberries.

“Now let’s fill the basket with blackberries and take them home to Mummy,” said Daddy. “Mummy will make a blackberry crumble for tea.”

Max picked the berries that were not too high for him to reach, and Daddy picked the ones growing higher up, almost in the sky. Very soon they had reached the end of one hedgerow and were ready to start on the next one, but the basket was still not very full, even after two long hedgerows.

“You’ll have to stop eating them, Max,” said Daddy. “You will get a tummy-ache and Mummy won’t have enough blackberries for the crumble.”

Max sat down on a big stone and waited while Daddy went along a different hedgerow and filled the basket with fruit. He was tall enough to reach the even the highest branches – well almost - and did not eat any – well, not many.

Then they went home.

“Can we go again on my birthday, Daddy?”

“Of course we can go again, Charlie,” said Daddy. “But not on your birthday. The blackberries have only just started to grow in March.”

“But we can go on my un-birthdays, like tomorrow,” said Max. “Yes, we can,” said Daddy.

“You brought a lot of blackberries home,” said Mummy when she saw how many Max and his Daddy had gathered.

Max had a ring of black juice all round his mouth.
“Let me see your tongue, Max,” said his Mummy.

Max stuck his tongue out. It was almost black from eating berries.

“I thought so,” said Mummy. “You must have eaten a lot of berries to get such a black tongue.”

“Daddy got some more to fill the basket.”

“That was a very good idea,” said Mummy.

Max went to look in a mirror and was very surprised to see that his tongue was the black colour of the blackberries.

Mummy made the crumble for tea and Max painted a picture. What did he paint?

The blackberry crumble was very nice, but not quite as nice as the blackberries Max had pulled off the bushes and popped into his mouth.