How Fletcher Was Hatched,

Fletcher is a large hound dog with brown spots, and his mistress is a little girl named Alexandra. The trouble starts because Alexandra is interested in baby chicks - tiny, fluffy, yellow chichk that say "Peep!" as they come out of their shells.

Fletcher's water dish is empty. He hasn't had his ears scratched in days. "She's forgotten me," he decides, and mournfully he shuffles off to the park at the edge of town. Here Fletcher's good friends, Beaver and Otter, have the idea. Fletcher must hatch! Of course, Beaver is a master builder, and it's no trouble at all to build an egg around Fletcher.The egg is large and pink and speckled with brown, and it poses somewhat of a problem for the school principal, not to mention the science teacher. But young readers will delight in the hilarious climax, along with a little girl named Alexandra.