Once upon a time Gertrude McCluck was going to have a dress-up tea party for all the friends in the hen house. She was excited and looking in her nesting box for the perfect costume to wear. She was tossing all of the costumes out until she found a bright red feather. Her mother said, "Oh, you found the feather from your Grandmother McCluck. I thought it was lost."

So Gertrude got all fancied up and put the feather in her hat. The chickens all had a wonderful time at the tea party. As Gertrude finished cleaning up after the party, she took off her costume and realized that the feather was missing. Gertrude was so sad and was afraid to tell her mother about the missing feather.

For two days, Gertrude looked everywhere for the feather with no luck. Then one Sunday morning, a little girl named Shelby came to feed the chickens a loaf of bread and a green leaf for Gertrude. When she was holding Gertrude, she could tell something was wrong with her because she wouldn't eat her favorite leaf. Shelby was very concerned about Gertrude.

She tried everything to cheer her up but nothing seemed to work. Shelby was getting Gertrude some fresh cold water when she saw something sparkling on the ground. She picked it up and it was a beautiful red feather. Shelby stuck the feather in her shirt pocket and picked up Gertrude to pet her. Gertrude spotted the shiny feather and was overjoyed and started clucking. Shelby could understand what she was saying. "It's amazing," said Shelby. "I can understand what you are saying! How can that be?"

Gertrude told Shelby all about the tea party and the special feather that was given to her from her Grandmother McCluck and whoever held the magic feather could understand chicken language.

From that day on, Shelby and Gertrude had a special friendship and a secret that nobody else knew about. Shelby knew what the chickens wanted and could understand all of them. Grandmother McCluck's magic feather was put in a special box in Shelby's closet waiting to be passed down to Shelby's children someday.