During his lunch break, Pat falls asleep on a hill above Thompson Ground, leaving his lunch box open and his keys just beside it. When he wakes up, he sees Dorothy Thompson's hens running off with his sandwiches and one with his keys. Pat follows the hen up a tree, but then the hen drops the keys and flies away. After falling out of the tree, Pat tells Mrs. Thompson about the hen and she comes to the conclusion that it must think its a magpie. Pat and Dorothy then go to get a ladder and Pat finds more than just his keys up in the tree. He also finds Mrs. Thompson's wedding ring which went missing the previous Easter and which she thought she lost down the sink. Having lost his sandwiches, Pat later has some of Mrs. Thompson's dinner. Later on when Pat carries on with the post, he tells everyone else about the magpie hen and they wonder themselves if anything they lost was taken by the bird in question. On the way home, Pat sees some real magpies and wonders if they had taught Mrs. Thompson's hens how to take shining objects like them.

It is a heavy rainy day in Greendale. Even the letters are wet when Pat goes to the Post Office to collect them. The rain has stopped. Pat goes to deliver his wet letters. Some people still have their lights on in their homes as the weather has been so dismal. Pat stops to see what has happened to Peter Fogg. Peter's old tractor is bogged down and he has fallen over in the mud. He then prepares to go home to change and then get his new tractor to pull the old one out of the mud. Pat bids him farewell and sets off again. At the village school, the children are looking to see if the rain has stopped. Charlie Pringle collects the letters, as Bill Thompson is off school at Thompson Ground, helping his father with the sheep. Pat watches the children have fun in the rain and then drives over to Greendale Farm where Peter Fogg shows him his new tractor with the bulldozer plough. Pat gives him his post and sets off again.

The church roof is leaking, and the Reverend Timms is having trouble catching drops of water in the buckets. Pat promises to ask Ted Glen to have a look. Pat buys some bananas from Sam Waldron. Pat is heading up into the hills when he is stopped by Mrs Thompson. The road has to be cleared, due to a blockage of mud. Alf tries to get through with his tractor, but gets stuck. Bill brings his model plane and Pat ties an SOS message to it and flies it over to Peter, giving him the message to clear the blockage with his tractor and bulldozer plough.

It seems ages since the plane has gone. Just when Pat is thinking it has crashed, he hears an engine coming along the road and sees Peter on his tractor. He clears the mud away and there is just enough room for Sam to get through and then Pat. Pat sees Ted mending a wall. He asks Ted to have a look at the church roof. Ted says he'll go along when he's finished. Miss Hubbards stops for a chat. Pat suggests she turn back otherwise she'll have to swim home. However, it'll take more than a drop of rain to stop Miss Hubbard and she heads on her way. Pat heads on his way too. It looks like there'll be rain again, but Pat will be able to sit by a warm fireside once he's delivered all the letters.