The farmer had left a message on the noticeboard, but a gust of wind had blown the word cards everywhere.

"Cow is the brown," read Little Thunder slowly. He tilted his head. "That doesn't sound right."

"The words are all there," said Spike, "just in the wrong order. A sentence needs a pattern."

Suzy nudged the cards with her nose. "Let's start with who the sentence is about. 'The cow.' Then what she is, or what she does. 'The cow is brown.'"

Little Thunder grinned. "That works!"

Seoul the cow wandered over. "In my language, Korean, we often put the doing word at the very end," she said. "So the order can change from language to language. But every language has rules."

That gave Spike an idea. He gathered the rest of the cards and laid them out in a line. "I have a dog." He wagged his tail. "That is true, actually. I have Suzy."

"You do not have me," Suzy laughed. "We are a team."

They worked through the whole message. "Please feed the hens." "The gate is open." "Little Thunder must not eat the roses."

Little Thunder froze. "Who told?"

Everyone laughed so hard the hens came to see what was happening.

At last the message was complete. Seoul read it aloud while the friends listened proudly.

"Building sentences is like building a fence," said Spike. "Every post has its place. Put them in the right order, and the whole thing stands up straight."

Little Thunder looked guiltily at the rose garden. "And the message is very clear."