Welcome to another series of short stories for children.
There are lots of stories here – just click on the links in the story to find more stories and learn about the nature of Ballyyahoo.
Gerry Mac is bored, so to pass the time he spends most of the day swinging on his gate.
It’s not surprising he’s bored.
A lot of Ballyyahooians are tired listening to him moaning about being bored.
The person who is most fed up with Gerry is Ballyyahoo’s oldest resident, 96 year old Paddy Plant.
You see a few weeks ago Gerry Mac and his cousin Kevin played a trick on Paddy and hid his trusty, rusty bike behind a pile of steaming manure.
But that’s a whole other story and if you want to read that – just click right here and you can get the whole eBook FREE.
Now, back to this story.
You might think that after being forced to shovel that very same steaming manure for hours on end and then having to wheelbarrow it all the way to Kelly’s shop, Gerry might have learned his lesson.
But the thing you need to know about Gerry Mac is that he doesn’t learn his lessons.
Sometimes it takes lot more manure before it sinks in and when he’s bored mischief is only a minute away.
And so it was last week.
It all started when Paddy Plant was out walking his donkey.
Another person feeling bored was Sergeant Sid.
Now, anyone who knows Ballyyahoo will know that when Sergeant Sid gets bored he fills his time by inventing new laws.
These laws are a scourge to the Ballyyahooians because nobody knows what they are.
Not until Sergeant Sid tells them and by then the law is already broken.
One of these laws concerns the donkeys of Ballyyahoo.
According to Sergeant Sid’s notorious Ballyyahoo law book, no donkeys are allowed on the roads of Ballyyahoo unless they are wearing a battery operated light with fully functioning batteries.
There are no exceptions to this law – not even 96 year old Paddy Plant.
Now it happened that Paddy’s hip was giving him a bit of jip one day when he was out walking with Daffo, his favourite donkey.
As he passed Gerry Mac’s house he saw Gerry swinging on his gate.
Gerry tried to hide when he saw Paddy coming but he had lazy bones from doing nothing and he was too slow and too late.
‘Ah there y’are Gerry. Can ye not find anything else to do with yourself beyond swinging on that oul gate?’ said Paddy.
‘I’m not just swinging on the gate, Paddy. I’m.. I’m…testing it for creaks.’
Paddy looked at the gate and patted Daffo’s head.
‘Creaks! Sure all you have to do is stick a bit of oil on the hinges and the gate will be as smooth as the inside of a donkeys ears. Tell your mother I’ll drop by later with a bit of oil and fix it for her.’
‘Yes, Paddy,’ said Gerry.
‘Better still, why don’t you come with me and get the oil and I’ll show you how to do it.’
Now, Gerry didn’t like the sound of that at all.
Oiling a creaky gate sounded too much like hard work.
He tried to run back inside the house but his mother had heard everything.
As usual she’d left the kitchen window open so she could keep half an eye on Gerry and the other half on the big pot of stew she had on the cooker.
She came out with a large carrot and gave it to Daffo.
Daffo loves carrots and her eyes lit up.
She chewed it up three quick munches.
Missus Mac patted Daffo then looked at Gerry.
‘Off you go with Paddy, Gerry, sure the walk will do you good and you should learn to fix things instead of swinging around on that old gate all day.’
‘Ah Ma…’
‘Don’t you ah Ma me, young man! Get along down that road with Paddy and learn to do something useful.’
Gerry couldn’t think of any excuse that would get past his mother and soon found himself walking down the road with Paddy Plant and Daffo.
‘Here, take Daffo and walk her for me, me oul hip’s giving me jip again, ‘said Paddy.
Gerry took Daffo’s reins and led him down the road.
He’d never admit it but Gerry liked walking Daffo and soon he got carried away and was halfway down the road when he heard Paddy calling him.
‘Take her down the field behind the Halfamoon beach and whatever you do, don’t go near the town or Sergeant Sid will be after you.’
‘Ha ha, he won’t catch me, he’s too big and slow,’ shouted Gerry, as he and Daffo broke into a trot.
All of a sudden, Gerry had a brainwave and when Gerry Mac has a brain wave things start to wrong.
Gerry decided it would be good trick to hide from old Paddy and took off as fast as he could.
Because of his lazy bones Gerry didn’t go all that fast but Daffo wasn’t used to going even a little bit fast.
She got very excited. Soon she was more than trotting, she was galloping.
Gerry did his best to keep up but Daffo was faster than him and soon she was heading towards the town with steam coming off her heels.
‘Stop Daffo! Come back ya eejit of a donkey,’ shouted Gerry.
But Daffo didn’t like being called an eejit and besides she knew that Kelly’s shop always had a great supply of carrots so she went faster and faster.
Gerry couldn’t keep up and had to let go of her reins.
Daffo was free and nothing was going to stop her.
To read what happens to Gerry and Daffo click on the carrot .
For more stories from Ballyyahoo click on the town.
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