Danny the Champion of the World

Thump! Thump! Thump! This lot fell almost on top of me. I was right under the tree as they came down and I found all three of them immediately -- two cocks and a hen. They were limp and warm, the feathers wonderfully soft in the hand.

'Where shall I put them, Dad?' I called out.

'Lay them here, Danny! Just pile them up here where it's light!'

My father was standing on the edge of the clearing with the moonlight streaming down all over him and a great bunch of pheasants in each hand. His face was bright, his eyes big and bright and wonderful, and he was staring around him like a child who has just discovered that the whole world is made of chocolate.

Thump!

Thump! Thump!

'It's too many!' I said.

'It's beautiful!' he cried. He dumped the birds he was carrying and ran off to look for more.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Thump!

It was easy to find them now. There were one or two lying under every tree. I quickly collected six more, three in each hand, and ran back and dumped them with the others. Then six more. Then six more after that.

And still they kept falling.

My father was in a whirl of excitement now, dashing about like a mad ghost under the trees. I could see the beam of his torch waving round in the dark, and every time he found a bird he gave a little yelp of triumph.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

'Hey Danny!' he shouted.

'Yes, I'm over here! What is it, Dad?'

'What do you think the great Mr Victor Hazell would say if he could see this?'

'Don't talk about it,' I said.

For three or four minutes, the pheasants kept on falling. Then suddenly they stopped.

'Keep searching!' my father shouted. 'There's plenty more on the ground!'

'Dad,' I said, 'don't you think we ought to get out while the going's good?'

'Never!' he shouted. 'Not on your life!'

We went on searching. Between us we looked under every tree within a hundred yards of the clearing, north, south, east and west, and I think we found most of them in the end. At the collecting-point there was a pile of pheasants as big as a bonfire.

'It's a miracle,' my father was saying. 'It's an absolute miracle.' He was staring at them in a kind of trance.

'Shouldn't we just take about six each and get out quick?' I said.

'I would like to count them, Danny'

'Dad! Not now!'

'I must count them.'

'Can't we do that later?'

'One...