On the morning of his sixth birthday, Marc was rudely awakened by his brother Marty, jumping on his bed and pulling his hair, he was just about to give his brother a whack, when he realized what Marty was saying; "Marc, get up, come on get up  and have a look at your birthday presents."

    Excitedly, Marc jumped out of bed, "That's right, it's my birthday, I nearly forgot," he exclaimed. Pushing his brother out of the way, he ran into the kitchen, where his mother was

getting breakfast.

    "Happy birthday, sweetheart," his mother greeted him with a big hug and kiss. "Happy birthday, son." said his father, shaking his hand. "Happy birthday Marc," his big brother Todd said slapping him on the back.

    "Thank you, everybody," replied Marc, eyes popping at the pile of presents on the table.

    Later, with presents opened and breakfast over, Marc was picking up some of his presents when he heard a loud screech from outside. "What was that?" he asked his mother.

    "We'd better go out and have a look," she answered Marc, taking him by the hand and walking outside with him.

   Outside the back door Marc saw his father standing next to a big box shaped thing, covered by an old sheet, his father held out his hand, "Come on Marc, come and have a look," he invited,

smiling at Marc.

   Marc could hear something inside, heart pounding with excitement, he walked towards the 'thing'; "Could this be... he wondered to himself. "Oh I hope... " then, as he pulled

the cover off... "Hello Marc, squaawk,"...

   (Marc's grandfather had taught the bird to say this, when the cover came off.)

   "Ooooohhh Daddeee." Marc exclaimed with a long drawn out sigh, "Just what I wanted, a cocky, and it talks, thank you Daddy."  

   "Don't thank me, it's your birthday present, from your grandparents," explained his father. "What's his name, does he say anything else," asked Marc, running to the cage to have a close look, "Will he bite?" he asked looking up at his father.

    "No, he doesn't bite; your grandfather has been teaching him to say a lot, but you will have to give him a name yourself, can you think of a good name?"

   Marc looked thoughtfully at the bird for a while; "He's got an awefully big beak... hmmmm... I know! I'll call him Mr Beaky.

    Marc had some friends over that afternoon, for his birthday party, they all loved his new friend, Mr Beaky.

     Over the next few months Marc taught Mr Beaky to say many more things.

    One afternoon, several months later,  Mrs. Swann, had a visit from her friend Mrs Rogers and her four year old son, Scott.

   "Where's Marc?" Scott wanted to know, "I want to play with him.""

   "Marc is at school dear, but you can go outside and play with some of his toys and there just might be someone else out there you can play with," Mrs Swann told Scott, mysteriously.

   Scott ran outside and not seeing anyone else there, sat down under a big tree and began to play with some toy cars that were there.

   Engrossed in play, Scott was startled by a voice coming from above him, saying, "Hello boy." Scott looked up into the tree but could not see anyone, so continued playing. A few minutes later he heard the voice again, "Hello boy, wanna play?" Scott looked up again, but still couldn't see anyone, so he stood up and called up into the tree, "Hello, I can't see you, where are you?

    Suddenly, the leaves began to rustle and something was moving, Scott held his breath, then, there on a limb just above his head, appeared a big white bird, with a big beak and yellow feathers on the top of his head.

   "A cocky!" exclaimed Scott, clapping his hands in delight. "Hello boy, wanna play?" repeated the cockatoo, then proceeded to come down the tree trunk, beak over claw, till he reached the bottom, then walking up to Scott, he cocked his head to one side and looking at him said, "Hello boy, wanna play?

    Scott was thrilled, he had never heard a cocky talk like this, "My name's Scott," he said "What's your name?

   "I'm Mr Beaky" replied the cockatoo. "Wanna play?" Then walking over to one of the toy cars, pushed it with his beak towards Scott.

    Scott, laughing, sat down and pushed the car back to Mr. Beaky, and they proceeded to have a jolly good time playing together, until Marc got home from school and joined in the fun.

                                                     The End

                                             (But not of Mr Beaky.)

                                            Mr.Beaky Goes Exploring.

     Mr Beaky was getting bored, the three boys were at school and Mrs Swann was out for the afternoon, which meant there would be no visitors and the neighbours were away on holidays.

   Sometimes when the neighbours had visitors, and if they were in the back yard, Mr Beaky would amuse himself by talking to them from his perch in the big tree overlooking the neighbours backyard then watching their startled faces when they couldn't see anyone. But there was nothing like that for

him to do today.

If birds could yawn, I'm sure Mr Beaky would have yawned.

    Taking a look around, Mr Beaky climbed down out of his tree, and ambled round the backyard looking for something to interest him, nothing; he wandered to the front of the house

    Mr Beaky loved to stand at the front fence and talk to people going past, it amused him to see the puzzled looks on the face of the people when they couldn't see who was talking, then he would squawk and jump out where they could see him and watch their faces change from puzzlement to amusement when they saw him.

Some people would stop and talk to him and admire him and say how clever he was. It quite fluffed his feathers when they did that, he would spread his wings and raise his comb, just to let them see what a handsome bird he was.

    Mr Beaky reached the front fence, and lo and behold to his surprise the gate was open. "What luck!" he thought.

  This had never happened before, Mr Beaky felt quite excited he would go and explore the outside world. He looked around cautiously, no, there was no one to stop him, he ran out the gate and along the footpath as fast as his little legs would go.

   Mr Beaky had gone only about half a block when a big black shape jumped at him, it was a cat, Mr Beaky let out a loud squawk, and, leaving a tail feather in the cats mouth, ran onto the street, almost under the wheels of a car, that swerved just in time, he continued to the footpath on the other side.

    Mr Beaky stood panting. "That was a close shave," he thought, looking back at his tail. "Squawk, that cat has ruined my good looks."

    Squawking angrily, Mr Beaky stalked along the footpath, "Cats, I don't like cats, they should be kept locked up," ran his thoughts.

    Eventually Mr Beaky calmed down, and began to look about him, he was just wondering where he was and thinking it was time he returned home when he heard a terrible noise behinhim, "Grrrrooof, grrrroowl." Mr Beaky froze in his tracks, he new what that noise was, it was one of those big four

legged things called 'dog', he'd seen and heard them passing his house, they would try and get him, but he was always safe behind the fence. This time it was different.

    The noise came again, closer this time, Mr Beaky spread his wings and ran, "Oh if only I could fly, like the birds I see overhead," thought Mr Beaky longingly, he took a quick look back, and sure enough, there it was, a big dog bearing quickly down on him.

    Mr Beaky put head down and tried to run quicker, he could feel the dog's hot breath on his feathers; then he heard something that made his heart sing. "Mr Beaky, Mr Beaky, go away you naughty dog, leave Mr Beaky alone, shoo, shoo, Marty, make that dog leave Mr Beaky alone." It was Marc, his voice was music to Mr Beaky's ears.

    Marc, who with his brother Marty, had been on his way home from school, picked Mr Beaky up and took him home.

    "Oh joy! Home!" Thought Mr Beaky. "I'm never going exploring in the outside world on my own again."

    Mr Beaky was so exhausted from his afternoons adventure he collapsed in a heap, heart still pounding and lungs nearly bursting and went to sleep.

                                                      The End.

                                             (Until next time.)