The Hat Tree

One day Lulu was looking through her closet for her hat. She picked out a brown hat and put that on. Then she got ready to go outside. She put on her shoes and took out her bicycle. Lulu was going to visit her friend Sally. Lulu was riding down the street, when all of a sudden a bird flew down and picked her hat off her head. 

The bird flew up with Lulu's hat. Lulu tried to follow the bird on her bicycle but the bird was flying too fast. Then Lulu couldn't see the bird anymore. Lulu didn't know where the bird went. And Lulu continued to bicycle to Sally's home. When Lulu arrived at Sally's home, Sally invited Lulu inside. Lulu told Sally that she was wearing her hat while riding her bicycle. 

And Lulu said that a bird suddenly came and grabbed the hat and flew away. Sally was also surprised. Then Sally said she had seen something unusual the day before. She told Lulu that there was a tree with lots of hats in it. Lulu was curious and asked Sally to show her that tree. Sally said okay, and got out her bicycle. 

Lulu and Sally both rode their bicycles, as Sally led the way. Lulu followed Sally all through the neighborhood until they came to a tree between two buildings. Sally pointed at the tree, and Lulu was amazed at what she saw. The tree was full of lots of different hats. And then Lulu saw the bird that had grabbed her hat earlier. And the bird had put Lulu's hat in the tree. 

Lulu laughed and told Sally that it looked like the bird had taken lots of hats from different people, and put it in the tree. Sally said that they should take the hats out of the tree and try to return them to the owners. Lulu agreed and said they needed a bag and a ladder. Sally went to the building next door and asked the building manager if they could borrow a ladder. 

Lulu went to a store nearby and asked if she could have an empty grocery bag. The cashier gave Lulu an empty bag. Sally and Lulu met back at the tree. Sally climbed up the ladder and pulled the hats out of the tree one by one. Lulu held the empty grocery bag open. Sally dropped the hats down to Lulu, and Lulu put the hats into the bag. 

When Sally took all the hats out of the tree, the bag Lulu was holding became full. Then Sally returned the ladder to the building next door. Now Lulu and Sally rode their bicycles and brought the bag of hats to the park. Then they put their bicycles a little distance apart. And they tied a string between the bicycles. Then they hung all the hats on the string and wrote a sign on a piece of paper in front of it. 

The sign said that these hats were found in a tree where a bird had put them. Very quickly the bird flew over them and tried to take another hat. Then Lulu had an idea. She took out her notebook and tore out some pages of blank paper. She told Sally to help her make some paper hats. Then they held out the paper hats to the bird, and the bird took all the paper hats and flew away. 

After a while people who walked by saw the sign and hats and came up to Lulu and Sally. Lots of different people said that they had lost their hats when the bird took it off their heads. Everybody thanked Lulu and Sally for finding the hats and returning them. When the last person took their hat back, Lulu and Sally took down the sign. They were curious to know what the bird did with the paper hats that they made. 

Lulu and Sally rode their bicycles to the tree between the two buildings. When they arrived at the tree they could see that it was full of paper hats. Then after a few minutes Lulu and Sally saw a lot of other smaller birds fly over and land in the tree. And all the smaller birds sat on the paper hats, and used those as nests. 

Lulu and Sally now understood why the first bird had taken all the hats. It was using the hats as nests for the smaller birds. Lulu and Sally were glad that they were able to make paper hats for the birds to use, instead of people's real hats. Then Sally was ready to leave and said goodbye to Lulu. 

And Lulu put on her hat and rode her bicycle home. When Lulu arrived at home she put her hat back in the closet. Then Lulu got ready for dinner. While Lulu ate with her parents, she told them about the hat tree. Her parents were amazed at how many hats the bird had taken. 

After finishing dinner, Lulu helped clean up the dishes. Then she took out her notebook and drew a picture of the tree full of paper hats. Lulu put that drawing on the refrigerator. Then she got ready for bed, and brushed her teeth. Finally, Lulu laid down, closed her eyes, and went to sleep, slowly slowly slowly.