Mrs. Redwing's Speckled Egg

From Old Mother West Wind, by Thornton W. Burgess

Thornton W. Burgess (1874–1965) wrote over a hundred nature storybooks for children, beginning with Old Mother West Wind in 1910. This reader reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. Burgess lived on the edge of wild places in Massachusetts and filled his stories with real animal behaviour wrapped in gentle fantasy. This tale is worth a child's time because it shows cleverness, cooperation, and care for the small and vulnerable — and because the Merry Little Breezes, like the wind itself, are both mischievous and kind.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readers, about 4 to 5

Length

short · about 401 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Old Mother West Wind, Thornton W. Burgess · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.