Agatha by Airmail Read online

  Agatha By Air Mail

  J. L. O’Rourke

  Millwheel Press

  Copyright 2015

  Published by Millwheel Press Limited

  This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be distributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy this book, please encourage your friends to purchase a copy, or download their own ebook version from their favourite authorised retailer. Thank you for your support.

  Acknowledgements:

  My thanks to my son and daughter, Cullen and Bethany, the real Ben and Lucy – and to the real Aunty Wendy.

  Thanks to Michael Nehoff for her skills in elephant wrapping.

  Cover photo by Michael Nehoff, interior illustrations by author and Michael Nehoff

  ISBN 978-0-473-27856-4

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Agatha by Airmail

  To Aunty Wendy, | Main Road, | Timaru

  Fragile.

  Airmail.

  very big

  Ben and Lucy were sitting at the table talking.

  “It’s Aunty Wendy’s birthday next week,” said Ben.

  “We’ll have to buy her a present.”

  “What will we get?” asked Lucy.

  “Aunty Wendy likes elephants,” said Ben.

  “We’ll buy her an elephant.”

  “Where will we get one?” asked Lucy.

  “We could buy one from the circus,” said Ben.

  So Ben and Lucy collected some money from their

  money boxes and went to the circus.

  They found a man in a clown suit and a funny hat and they asked him if they could buy an elephant.

  “Yes,” said the man.

  “I have an extra elephant. Her name is Agatha.

  I will sell you Agatha the Elephant.”

  Ben and Lucy gave the man their money.

  He gave them Agatha the elephant.

  They took her home on a piece of string.

  “How will we send Agatha the Elephant to Aunty Wendy?” asked Lucy.

  “The same way Aunty Wendy sends presents to us on our birthdays,” said Ben.

  “We’ll post her at the Post Office.”

  So they took Agatha the Elephant on her piece of string to the Post Office.

  They went to the lady behind the counter.

  “We want to send this elephant to Aunty Wendy,” said Lucy.

  “You’ll have to put her in an envelope,” said the lady.

  Ben and Lucy went over to the other side of the Post Office, where the envelopes were, and bought the biggest one they could find.

  Then they tried to put Agatha the Elephant inside it.

  They pushed and pushed and pushed.

  They even folded up her big, floppy ears.

  She didn’t fit. She was too big.

  “She’s too big to go in an envelope,” Ben told the lady behind the counter.

  “Then you’ll have to wrap her up in brown paper and send her as a parcel,” said the lady.

  So Ben and Lucy took Agatha on her piece of string and walked down the street to a shop that sold brown paper.

  They bought a huge piece of brown paper

  and a very large roll of sticky tape.

  They put the brown paper around and around Agatha the Elephant’s big, fat body,

  and around her big, thick legs,

  and down her big, long trunk,

  and around her tiny little tail

  and then they wrapped the sticky tape

  around and and

  until the paper was all stuck on.

  “Now we can post our elephant,” said Lucy.

  “No,” said the lady behind the counter.

  “You can’t post your elephant.

  You haven’t put an address on her.”

  Ben got a big, black felt pen and wrote

  To Aunty Wendy,

  Main Road,

  Timaru

  in huge letters on both sides of Agatha the Elephant’s body.

  “Now we can post our elephant,” he said.

  “No,” said the lady behind the counter.

  “You can’t post your elephant.

  You haven’t put a stamp on her.”

  The lady got out her big book of stamps and chose the biggest stamp she could find.

  She climbed onto the counter and stuck the stamp on Agatha the Elephant’s head, right between her eyes.

  “Now we can post our elephant,” said Lucy.

  “No,” said the lady behind the counter.

  “You can’t post your elephant. Her tusks might break.”

  The lady got two of the little bags with air bubbles in them that are used for posting very special things.

  She put one bag on each of Agatha the Elephant’s tusks and stamped each one

  Fragile.

  “Now we can post our elephant,” said Ben.

  “Yes,” said the lady behind the counter.

  “Now we can post your elephant.”

  She took Agatha the Elephant by the piece of string and led her out the back of the Post Office.

  She gave Agatha the Elephant to a postman.

  “This elephant is to be posted to Ben and Lucy’s Aunty Wendy,” she said.

  “I’ll put her in my van with the other mail,” said the postman.

  He took Agatha the Elephant to his van and tried to put her inside.

  He pushed and pushed and pushed.

  He even folded up her big, floppy ears.

  She didn’t fit.

  She was

  too big.

  “She’s too big for my van,” said the postman.

  “I can’t drive her to Aunty Wendy’s.”

  “How will we send Agatha the Elephant to Aunty Wendy now?” asked Lucy.

  “Perhaps you could send her by airmail?” the postman said.

  “No,” said the lady behind the counter.

  “You can’t send her by airmail.

  She will need another stamp.”

  The lady found a special stamp that said

  Airmail.

  She stuck it onto one of Agatha’s big, floppy ears.

  “Now we can post the elephant by airmail,” she said.

  Ben and Lucy and the postman took Agatha the Elephant by her piece of string all the way to the airport.

  The postman took them to a very special,

  very big

  plane that had a big red Post Office label on the side.

  He loaded Agatha the Elephant onto the plane.

  He made her a special place to lie down in the middle of all the other big brown-paper wrapped parcels.

  He even gave her the cream bun he had been saving for his lunch.

  Agatha waved goodbye to Ben and Lucy with her trunk as the postman closed the plane’s big door.

  “You see,” Ben said to Lucy as they watched the plane take off and fly away.

  “I told you we could post an elephant to Aunty Wendy at the Post Office.”

 

 

  J.L. O'Rourke, Agatha by Airmail

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