"Bak, bak, BA-ACK!"

"Chi, chi, chi, chi!"

The racket from the coop carried all the way to where I was chasing grasshoppers. I waddled over to the coop and was about to stick my beak in the door when Beetle-bug the Guinea came racing out.

"Ms. McCluck! Pearl is missing!" he cried.

"What?"

"Pearl's missing!"

"You mean that Guinea hen you hang out with?"

"Yes! And she's MISSING!"

"Okay, go tell the coop we're holding an emergency meeting."

Once everyone had gathered in the barn, I explained the situation. We had a broody Guinea hen in the wild.

"We're going to set up a search office," I announced.

"How do you do that?" asked the rooster, King.

"Anyone who wants to help writes down their name and I'll assign them an area to search," I explained. "At noon report back here. Those looking to sign up, form a line. The search office is now recruiting!"

The whole coop formed a mob (most chickens don't know the meaning of "line"). When everyone had signed up, I began to assign areas.

"King, take the ravine; Speck, the horse pasture - focus on areas with tall grass; Gold, search all the buildings, except for the humans' coop, of course."

"It's not called a coop, it's called a house," said Gold.

I ignored her and continued assigning areas. Within ten minutes, everyone had an area.

"So that leaves the cornfield to me," I finished. "Okay, fan out."

At the noon meeting, everyone gave their reports.

"Guess what I found ladies! Styrofoam! Loads of it! Follow me!" said King.

"We're not here to eat Syrofoam," I corrected.

"I almost got trampled by a horse, but the bugs were good," said Speck.

"We're not discussing bugs!"

"I want a new area. Mamma Cat's got a new litter. She tried to kill me! Small Human was in the tool shed and she caught me, and a goat tried to butt me into the water trough," squawked Gold. "At least the spilled grain was good."

"This meeting is not about food!"

The reports went on for another half-hour. No one had found Pearl, but everyone seemed to have found food.

"I've never hated corn so much! Row after row and no Guinea!" I said when my turn came.

"Was it ripe?"

"Is food all you can think about?!"

"Yes!"

"Meeting dismissed. Back to the search!"

I triple searched the cornfield, but found nothing. At the afternoon meeting, King was in a frenzy. He's been attacked by Pearl! I assigned everyone new areas in and around the ravine.

We tried everything: bait, traps, calling, begging, but still that Guinea wouldn't come out. After three weeks, we abandoned the search, all hopes of finding Pearl gone. The next day, however, we were in for a surprise.

"It's Pearl! She's back and she's not alone!"

Pearl was indeed back, with fifteen keets underneath her. Everyone was thrilled and we threw a big party to celebrate.