Martha started coughing because some of the fibres from the wool she was pecking away at, must have gone down her throat. She was trying to cough the fibres up! Mr Finleyson, who was still deep in conversation with Gilbert, looked to see why Martha was having such a coughing fit. He turned to look at her and it was then he saw what used to be the back of old Bertie's jumper, which was missing and bits of red yarn was scattered everywhere in a trail like pattern. With Martha coughing, the back of Bertie,s jumper missing and the trail of red yarn, he put two and two together and instantly knew why Martha was coughing. She had pecked old Bertie,s jumper to pieces! Mr Finleyson was mortified at what Martha had done and to make matters worse, she could not have picked a more bad tempered, ill natered, cantankerous, feisty, old bastard if she had tried. He was the worst, with a fearsome reputation! Mr Finleyson always gave old Bertie a wide berth when he encountered him. Old Bertie was stone deaf, eighty six years old, bandy legged to the extreme, with gnarled hands and a weather beaten face. He did not suffer fools gladly! Even though Bertie's farm was only fifteen miles away from his, he avoided him at all costs. Old Bertie's age did not hamper him and he had not become more mellow with age. What was he going to do? If Bertie found out it was Martha who had destroyed his jumper, he would not hesitate to wring her neck! Mr Finleyson turned around to see who was standing behind him. It turned out it was another miserable old bastard by the name of Colin Brown. Mr Finleyson was sandwiched between two old miserable and ornery bastards! He had to think fast, the queue was moving along and it was getting on for 10:00 am. Everything was running late. He leaned over to Gilbert on his left and said "I need to go back to the Land Rover and take out the two cages in the back with my other hens in them. I can only carry one at a time. I am going to put the hens in a holding pen in the competitor's tent. I won't be long as I will let them out of the cages and feed them. Could you hold onto Martha for me while I take care of the hens, and when I come back, do you think I could slip back into the queue in front of you?" Gilbert said "no bother Oliver, you do what you have to do and I will take good care of Martha for you". "Does your sudden departure from that queue, have anything to do the destruction of old Bertie's jumper by Martha?" Gilbert then gave Mr Finleyson a knowing wink!