It was almost May Day when the Tall Controller came to Whitehaven Sheds with an announcement. "The decorations for the May Day Festival arrive tonight," he said, "and you, Kenneth, will be collecting them on your Mail Run."

"Yes, Sir!" whistled Kenneth excitedly.

When Marcus, Kenneth and Tracy visited the Island of Sodor, Thomas told them about how the engines were once decorated for May Day and had a competition for the best-dressed engine. When the three engines returned home, they asked the Tall Controller if they could be decorated for their Festival too.

The Tall Controller thought it was a grand idea and made arrangements at once. It was decided that the engines would be decorated with flags. The engines were excited; having decorated was like being in fancy dress.

When Kenneth arrived at Kirkby Stephen to collect his Mail Train, he felt like his boiler would burst. It wasn't long before the Main Line Train arrived, but to Kenneth, it felt like forever. "Please hurry up with those mailbags!" he called.

"You're in a hurry," said the Main Line engine.

"I am," wheeshed Kenneth and explained about the Festival.

At last, Kenneth's mail trucks were ready. "Have fun at the Festival," said the Main Line engine.

"We will!" And Kenneth raced away as fast as his wheels would carry him. He raced all over the Railway making his deliveries. "Please be quick!" he called to the porters. "I want to get back to Whitehaven as soon as I can, so I'll have plenty of time to get ready in the morning."

"We won't be leaving the Sheds any earlier than usual," laughed his Driver, "and you can sleep while we have you cleaned."

"But I want to be up as early as everyone else," Kenneth insisted.

At Ravenglass, the porters tried to be quick, but it wasn't easy being fast and careful. They knew the mail was important and they couldn't make any mistakes.

"Please, hurry up!" whistled Kenneth. "I have to go!"

"All right, all right," grumbled one of the porters, but as he removed the last mailbag, one of them fell onto the platform and burst open. "Oh dear!" said the porter. He quickly retied the mailbag and placed it back in the truck…but no knew that a parcel had fallen off the platform.

Kenneth finished his Mail Run and hurried back to the Sheds and the next morning, he was up bright and early with the other engines. As warmth spread through the steam engines' boilers, the workmen set to work cleaning everyone.

Soon, all the engines looked smart and shiny and the workmen started attaching the new flags to their fronts. Every engine had two flags; on some of them, the flags were the same and on others, they were different. Marcus had two Mainland flags while Kenneth had a Mainland flag and one from West Yorkshire.

"Nice flags, Marcus," said Kenneth.

"I like yours too," his friend replied.

Tracy was the last engine to be decorated…or so she thought. The workmen searched for the parcel with Tracy's flags, but it was nowhere to be seen. "I'm sorry, Tracy," said her Driver. "It seems that your flags were never delivered."

Everyone gasped. "That can't be right," protested Kenneth. "I remember delivering them here."

"Well, there are no parcels left."

Tracy was worried. "What could've happened?"

"Maybe it wasn't on the Main Line Train," said Marcus.

"Or I dropped it on the way!" Kenneth cried.

"Calm down, Kenneth," said his Driver. "If we tell the Tall Controller, he may be able to find out what happened."

"Yes," agreed Kana, "and I'm helping Laurence collect passengers for the Festival. We'll be using lots of tracks on Kenneth's mail route, so we can look for the missing parcel too."

"And the rest of us will ask if anyone else has seen it," added Marcus.

"Thank you, everyone," said Tracy. "I hope we find it soon."

When the Tall Controller heard the news, he telephoned every station on Kenneth's mail route. Laurence and Kana asked everyone at every station, but the parcel was nowhere to be seen. As they went about their work, the other engines asked about the missing parcel too, but no one had seen it.

Tracy saw the Tall Controller at Whitehaven Station. "Has anyone found the missing parcel, Sir?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not," he sighed. "The Stationmaster at Kirkby Stephen says that it arrived last night, but no one has seen it anywhere."

"I'm sorry, Tracy," said Kenneth sadly. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't been racing about and rushing everyone, I wouldn't have lost the parcel with your flags."

"That's alright; you were excited. It was only an accident."

"And next time," the Tall Controller added, "you must take care, so this doesn't happen again."

Then, Marcus had an idea. "You can borrow one of my flags, Tracy."

"And one of mine," added Kenneth.

"Thank you," smiled Tracy, "but they're your flags and you've been waiting for them for a long time."

"And it's too late to make any new ones," sighed Kenneth.

Suddenly, Marcus gasped. "Maybe not!"

"What do you mean?" asked Tracy.

"The Repair Yard!" whistled Marcus. "If they can fix engines, maybe they can make you some new flags!"

Tracy wasn't sure. "I don't know."

"We can still ask."

The three engines raced to the Repair Yard and explained what had happened, but the Repair Manager wasn't sure about Marcus' idea either. "Well…I don't know."

"We have to try," said Sandy. "We have supplies for making warning flags and we still have some decorations we didn't have room for."

"Sandy's right," agreed Loni. "Let's do it."

Sandy was as good as her word. The workmen gathered their supplies and decorations and set to work and in no time at all, there were two small flagpoles decorated with colourful balloons and streamers.

"What do you think, Tracy?" Sandy asked.

"I think…I love them!" Tracy whistled. "Thank you so much, everyone."

"They may not be the flags of Bermingham, but they will look great on you."

Tracy smiled. "These flags are even better because my friends helped to make them."

Everyone else loved Tracy's flags too. There were claps, cheers, whistles and toots everywhere she went, and she even had a special mention at the May Day Festival.

Nathan was the last engine to arrive. "Look at this, everyone!" he called. His Driver held up something dirty and made of paper.

"The parcel!" shouted the engines excitedly.

"Where was it?" asked Kenneth.

"A workman found it at the Waste Dump. Someone must have put it in one of the trucks I collected."

"This is great," whistled Marcus. "Now, you can wear your proper flags, Tracy."

"Actually," said Tracy thoughtfully, "I think I'll save them for next year. I already have the best flags ever."

"You certainly do," said Kana. "If we had a best-dressed engine competition, you would definitaly be the winner, Tracy."

"Absolutely," agreed Nathan. "Those are the best flags in the whole Festival."

And everyone agreed.