Just like every morning, the sun was rising gently over the farm in the south. And just like every morning…
“COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOO!” bellowed Captain Jack from the roof of the henhouse.
Of course, he still sang out of tune. But to him, it was “a leader’s voice”.
In the farmyard, Matilda was pecking about and daydreaming when she saw her pal Oscar, the red fox, coming along.
“Hey, Matilda! Come on, let’s sneak off! I’ve got something important to show you.”
And hop! As usual, Matilda squeezed under a corner of the wobbly plank in the fence (by now she knew the secret passage by heart).
Together, they dashed into the forest, all the way to the treetop house of Master Herculus, the wise owl.
“MAAAASTER HERCULUS!” shouted Oscar.
“MAAASTER HERCULUS!” added Matilda.
Of course, the owl, still a little deaf, didn’t answer straight away.
He came out bumping his wings, spun round twice, then landed looking very learned.
“Ah, my young friends! Did you know that tonight is the Night of the Shooting Stars?”
He explained that he had set up a big telescope in the farmer’s old barn, and that if Matilda could come, she would see a real show in the sky.
Matilda flapped her wings with excitement:
“But how will I get out of the henhouse tonight? Captain Jack keeps watch over everything!”
Oscar, clever as ever, gave his crooked little smile:
“Easy! We put a pretend Matilda in your bed, and we dig a tunnel all the way to the barn!”
“Yes, but… we don’t know how to carve, or how to dig…” sighed Matilda.
Just then, around a bend in the path, they bumped into Dadou, the carpenter mole.
Dadou was busy carving a wooden mushroom that looked just like a real one.
All around him were little tunnels, decorated with beams carved with smiling faces.
“Oh, that’s perfect!” said Oscar. “Dadou, can you help us?”
“Of course,” answered the mole, straightening his glasses. “I’ll take care of the statue, and the tunnel too! See you tonight.”
Relieved, Matilda and Oscar went to rest in a clearing. They had brought a snack: bits of bread, a little jam, and some hazelnuts that Oscar had pinched.
They made up a thousand games:
• Oscar pretended to chase butterflies that Matilda sent right onto his nose on purpose.
• They had a woodpecker race against the trees: whoever tapped the fastest won (Matilda lost, of course).
• And they played “who laughs last”… but Matilda always laughed first.
When the sun began to go down, they crept back quietly.
Joe, the old horse, had dreamed up yet another distraction: this time, he rang the bell on the water trough like an alarm.
Captain Jack, in a panic, started running round in circles, shouting:
“Charge! Defend the farm!”
In all the confusion, Matilda got back inside without any trouble.
That evening, Dadou came back with a wooden statue of Matilda, so lifelike you’d have sworn it was about to cluck.
“Lucky it’s light,” said Matilda, dragging it to her place in the henhouse.
Matilda gently set the little wooden statue down in the henhouse. She took one last look at her sleeping family, then joined Oscar and Dadou at the entrance to the tunnel.
The mole, proud as a king, held up a little lantern cut from a shining stone, and said:
“Follow me, my friends! Welcome to my underground palace!”
They hurried into the tunnel, and Matilda’s eyes grew wide. The earth walls were held up by carved beams. On each one, Dadou had carved smiling faces: Joe the horse, Captain Jack the rooster (with a funny comb that was much too big!), and even Matilda and Oscar, laughing and full of mischief.
The floor was as smooth as a dance floor, and here and there, little glowing stones set into the walls lit up the way.
“Wow!” cried Matilda. “It’s even prettier than Mémé and Mamé’s henhouse!”
As for Oscar, he was holding his tummy, laughing at Dadou’s wacky carvings.
The three friends kept going, amazed, until, far ahead, a ray of light shone down a ladder: they had arrived under the barn.
Upstairs, in a loft above the bales of straw, they discovered… Master Herculus’s astronomy laboratory! Star maps covered the walls, and magnifying glasses lay about everywhere.
Through the half-open window, they heard Herculus arriving. And as always… he bumped into things three times before he managed to aim for the opening.
“Ouch! Ow! Flap! Honestly, whose idea was it to make such a narrow window?” he grumbled.
Once he had settled in at last, he explained that around midnight, shooting stars would appear, and everyone could make a wish.
At the stroke of midnight, the first light streaked across the sky.
“Ooooooh!” went the three friends.
Matilda, filled with wonder, thought very hard: “My wish is to always have my family and my friends around me.”
Oscar made the same wish quietly in his corner, even though he didn’t say so. And Dadou, who couldn’t see very well, simply asked:
“Describe them to me properly, those stars!”
Then, little by little, the stars faded away. Herculus yawned:
“Right, my little ones, it’s time for bed.”
They went back through the tunnel. And this time, no need for a distraction: Captain Jack was snoring so loudly that he drowned out the sound of all their footsteps.
Matilda hid the statue in the tunnel “just in case”, giggled at her own idea, then ran back to her family.
She lay down and counted in her head:
“One… Mummy, two… Mémé, three… Mamé…”
And she didn’t even have time to say “Manon” before she was fast asleep.
✨ The end… but not for long!