This was too much for the wedding guests and the whole tent full of people burst out laughing. The bridesmaids were beside themselves, they just could not stop giggling.
All except Refiloe.

She was horrified.

This was terrible!

Now her chickens would surely go into Mme’s pot!

She looked across at her mother and father, but to her surprise they too were struggling not to laugh.

Her mother had stuffed a napkin into her mouth and her father had disappeared under the table.

But Refiloe was dreadfully worried. What was she going to do?

The chicken was astonished, it dropped the sweet it had picked up off the table, flapped its wings and flew up into Palesa’s wedding veil.

Liau pulled the veil off Palesa’s head, gave her a big kiss and tossed the veil with the chicken still in it across the tent.

It landed back on Mme Ngwe’s head.

The guests could not contain themselves. They screamed with laughter.
The tears rolled down Refiloe’s mother’s cheeks. The men had to hold onto their bellies. The women rolled around in their chairs. The boys and girls were hanging onto each other. The grandmothers could hardly breathe for laughing. The grandfathers stamped their walking sticks.

Refiloe couldn’t believe it!

Small-Dog-Big-Noise barked her heart out. The donkey kicked up his back legs and brayed until he went hoarse. The sheep wandered back into the tent to see what the fuss was about.

The guests chuckled and snorted and hooted with laughter, they simply could not stop.

Then the two aunts looked at each other and started giggling. Mme Pedi rolled over and opened her mouth wide with laughter. Mme Ngwe threw back her head and laughed until all her chins shook.

They held onto each other and laughed for a full ten minutes before either of them could catch her breath.