"I don't know what the farm's coming to," he croaked. "Here's FarmerGreen wasting corn on such as her--and cracking it for her, too!"
So saying, the old gentleman turned his back on Henrietta Hen, who wasalready fluttering through the farmyard fence. And thereupon he scratchedup enough corn for a hearty meal, grumbling meanwhile because it wasn'tcracked for him.
"Somehow," he muttered, "I can't help wishing I was a speckled hen."
VI
HENRIETTA COMPLAINS
There was another member of Farmer Green's flock, besides Henrietta Hen,that was proud. Nobody needed to look twice at the Rooster to tell thathe had an excellent opinion of himself. He had a way of walking about thefarmyard that said quite plainly that he believed himself to be a personof great importance. And it was true that things went according to hisideas, among the flock.
He was always spoken of as "the Rooster." For although there were otherroosters in the flock, they were both younger and smaller than he, and hewould never permit anybody to call them--in his hearing--anything butcockerels.
These cockerels usually took great pains to keep out of the Rooster'sway. If they were careless, and he caught them napping, he was more thanlikely to make matters unpleasant for them. He knew how to make theirfeathers fly.
Now, Henrietta Hen thought that the Rooster behaved in a most sillyfashion. She said it pained her to see him prancing about, with his twolong, arched tail-feathers nodding as he walked. The truth was, Henriettacould not endure it to have any one more elegantly dressed than she. Andthere was no denying that the Rooster's finery outshone everybody else's.Why, he wore a comb on his head that was even bigger than Henrietta's!And he had spurs, too, for his legs.
But what Henrietta Hen disliked most about the Rooster was the way hecrowed each morning. It wasn't so much the _kind_ of crowing that heindulged in; it was rather the early hour he chose for it that annoyedHenrietta. He always began his _Cockle-doodle-doo_ while it was yet dark.Then everybody in the henhouse had to wake up, whether he wanted to ornot. And Henrietta Hen did wish the Rooster would keep still at leasttill daylight came. She often remarked that it was perfectly ridiculousfor any one from a fine family--as she was--to get up at such anunearthly hour. She said it was a wonder she kept her good looks, just onaccount of the Rooster's crowing.
"Why don't you ask him to wait until it's light, before he begins tocrow?" Polly Plymouth Rock asked Henrietta one day.
"I'll do it!" cried Henrietta. Right then she called to one of thecockerels, who was near-by. "Just skip across the yard and ask theRooster--" she began.
The cockerel broke right in upon her message.
"Oh! I can't do that!" he exclaimed. "I've never gone up to the Roosterand spoken to him. If I did, he'd be sure to fight me."
"Just tell him that I sent you," said Henrietta. And she made thecockerel listen to her message. But he wouldn't be persuaded. He toldHenrietta that the Rooster would be sure to jump at him the moment heopened his mouth. "Besides," he added, "it wouldn't do any good, anyhow.The Rooster can't wait until after daylight, before he begins to crow."
"He can't, eh?" Henrietta Hen spoke up somewhat sharply. "I'd like toknow the reason why!" And fixing her gaze sternly upon the Rooster, shemarched straight across the farmyard towards him, to find out.
VII
WARNING THE ROOSTER
"Good Afternoon!" Henrietta Hen greeted the Rooster. He had not seen heras she walked towards him. And when she spoke he hastily arranged his twolong tail-feathers in what he considered a more becoming droop.
"Good afternoon, madam!" he answered--for the Rooster prided himself thathe was always polite to the ladies. "Er--there's nothing wrong, I hope,"he added quickly as he noticed an odd gleam in Henrietta Hen's eye.
"Yes--there is," she said. The cockerels might fear the Rooster, butHenrietta certainly didn't. She considered him a good deal of a braggart.Indeed, she even had an idea that she could have whipped him herself, hadshe cared to be so unladylike as to fight. "I've been bothered for a longtime because you crow so early in the morning. You make such a racketthat you wake me up every day."
The Booster hemmed and hawed. Somehow he felt uncomfortable.
"That's unfortunate," he stammered. And then he had a happy thought."Anyhow," he continued, with a smile at Henrietta, "you don't look as ifyou lacked for sleep, madam. You grow more beautiful every day."
Henrietta Hen admitted that it was so. "But," she said, "I believe I'd beeven handsomer if I weren't disturbed so early. I don't like to get upwhile it's dark. So I'm going to ask you to delay your crowing, from nowon, until after sunrise."
"Impossible!" cried the Rooster. "I'm sorry to disoblige you, madam. Butwhat you ask can't be done."
"That's just what the cockerel said!" Henrietta Hen exclaimed.
"The cockerel!" the Rooster echoed angrily. "Which one? Has one of thoseupstarts been talking about me? Point him out to me and I'll soon teachhim a lesson."
Henrietta Hen said that she hadn't noticed which cockerel it was. Somehowthey all looked alike to her.
"Good!" the Rooster cried. "Then I'll have to whip them all, to make sureof punishing the guilty one." He looked very fierce.
"Don't be absurd!" Henrietta told him. "I asked one of the cockerels togive you a message about not crowing so early. And he declined. He saidit wouldn't do any good."
"It wouldn't have done _him_ any good," the Rooster declared, stamping afoot and thrusting his bill far forward, to show Henrietta Hen how bravehe was.
"What's the matter?" she inquired. "Have you eaten something thatdisagrees with you?"
The Rooster couldn't help looking foolish. Henrietta Hen believed inletting him know that she stood in no awe of him. And while he wasfeeling ill at ease she hastened to tell him that hereafter he must _holdonto_ his first crow until after sunrise.
"I can't do that," he told her again, unhappily.
"Don't you dare let go of it!" she warned him. "If that first crow getsaway from you while it's dark, there'll be so many others to follow itthat I shan't be able to close an eye for even a cat-nap."
VIII
WHY THE ROOSTER CROWED
Henrietta Hen had commanded the Rooster to wait until daylight before hebegan to crow.
He saw that she had made up her mind that he must obey her. But he knewhe couldn't. And he always took great pains to be polite to the ladies.
It was a wonder the Rooster didn't turn red in the face. He had neverfound himself in such a corner before.
"You don't understand," he blurted. "I'd be delighted to oblige you, butif I didn't crow until after the sun rose I'd never crow again."
"We could stand that," was Henrietta Hen's grim reply.
"Perhaps!" he admitted--for she made him feel strangely humble. "Butcould you stand it if the night lasted forever?"
"You're talking nonsense now," she declared.
"You don't understand," he told her again. "And I must say I'm surprised,madam, that you didn't know it was I that waked the sun up every morning._That's_ why I crow so early."
Henrietta Hen was so astonished that she didn't know what to say. Shethought deeply for a time--or as deeply as she could.
"Have you not noticed," the Rooster inquired, "that the sun never risesuntil I've crowed loudly a good many times?"
"No! No--I haven't," Henrietta murmured. "But now that you speak of it, Isee that it's so."
"Exactly!" he said. "And often, madam, I have to crow a long time beforehe peeps over Blue Mountain. It's lucky I have a good, strong voice," theRooster, added with a smirk, for he was feeling more at his ease. "If Ihad a thin, squeaky crow such as those worthless cockerels have, FarmerGreen would have had to do many a day's work in the dark."
"Goodness!" Henrietta Hen gasped. "Do crow your loudest the moment youwake up, Mr. Rooster! Do make all the noise you can!" And he promisedfaithfully that he would.
Henrietta left him then. Somehow she couldn't get their talk out of hermind. And soon s
he had an unhappy thought. What if anything should happento the Rooster's voice?
The moment that question popped into her head, Henrietta Hen hurried backto the Rooster.
"Do be careful!" she besought him. "Don't get your feet wet! For if youcaught cold you might be so hoarse that you couldn't speak above awhisper."
The Rooster thanked her politely for thinking of his health.
"I always take good care of myself," he assured her.
"It looks like rain this minute," she said as she cast an anxious glanceat the sky. "Hadn't you better run into the barn?"
He thought otherwise--and said as much.
"You ought to wear rubbers every day," she chided him, as she went awayagain.
Soon Henrietta returned once more to urge the Rooster to carry anumbrella. And it wasn't long after that when she came bustling up to himand informed him that a warm muffler about his throat wouldn't be amiss.
There seemed to be no end to her suggestions. And though at first theRooster had liked to hear them (without having any idea of followingthem) after a time Henrietta's attentions began to annoy him.
"Great cracked corn!" he exclaimed. "This Henrietta Hen is getting to bea pest."
IX
HAUGHTY HENRIETTA
Feeling as important as she did, Henrietta Hen liked to have her own way.She said that she couldn't be expected to do just as others wished.
"I'll take orders from nobody," she often declared. "And if I lay eggsfor Farmer Green I shall lay them when and where I please."
Henrietta took special delight in laying her eggs in out-of-the-wayplaces. She was never content to lay two in the same nest.
"If they left them for me perhaps I'd feel differently," she explained toher neighbors. "But Johnnie Green gathers every egg that he can find. Andif he takes my eggs I'll make him hunt for them, anyhow."
The older, more staid hens shook their heads when Henrietta talked likethat. They told her she was ungrateful.
"Farmer Green gives you a snug home and plenty of food," they remindedher. "And the least you can do is to repay him. You ought not to maketrouble by hiding your eggs."
But Henrietta Hen couldn't--or wouldn't--agree with them.
"It's all very well for you to talk," she retorted. "If my eggs wereundersized I shouldn't mind losing them as fast as I laid them. But I laythe biggest and finest eggs to be had. So it's only natural that I shouldlike to have at least _one_ around to look at--and to show to callers."
Now, there were plenty of other hens in the flock that laid eggs exactlyas big--or even bigger--than Henrietta Hen's. Some of them told her asmuch. Yet it did them no good to talk to her. She wouldn't believe thatthere were any eggs in the world to compare with hers. So her neighborslearned after a while that they might as well let Henrietta Hen manageher affairs as she pleased. They couldn't help hoping, however, thatsomehow Farmer Green would find a way to outwit her.
"What can Henrietta Hen be so boastful about now?" the hens asked oneanother one day. "She acts as if she thought more highly of herself thanever."
They soon discovered the reason for Henrietta's unusually pompous manner.For she began to make calls on all her friends. And she invited everybodyto come to her latest nest high up in the haymow.
"I've something there to show you," she said with an air of mystery."You'll be surprised to see it."
Most of Henrietta's neighbors did not show any great curiosity to see thesurprise. They smiled at one another. "She's laid another egg--that'sall!" they whispered.
But there are always some that can't rest until they know everybodyelse's business. And it was lucky that Henrietta Hen hurried home toreceive her callers, because she had a good many. They came even earlierin the afternoon than was strictly fashionable. And they came in a crowd,too. That, however, didn't bother Henrietta Hen. Nor could they havearrived too soon to suit her.
"Look!" she cried, when they reached her nest high up in the haymow. "Didyou ever see anything to beat that?"
X
THE BIG, WHITE EGG
When Henrietta Hen's callers crowded about her nest in the haymow theyexpected to see something wonderful. But when they craned their necks andpeered into the little hollowed-out snuggery in the hay they couldn'thelp being disappointed. And when they didn't burst forth with cries ofsurprise and praise Henrietta Hen looked quite unhappy.
"I thought," she said, "you'd want to see this egg. I'm sure you neverbeheld a bigger nor a whiter one than this."
They admitted that the egg was big and that it was very, very white. Andif their praise was faint, Henrietta never noticed it.
"Are you going to let Farmer Green have that egg?" one of the companyinquired.
"No doubt Johnnie Green will grab it as soon as he finds my nest," saidHenrietta with something like a sigh. "If I could only keep this one Iwouldn't care how many others he took."
Polly Plymouth Rock turned to old Whitey, a hen who had come with her tothe haymow.
"What do you think?" Polly asked. "Is Henrietta in danger of losing thisegg that she thinks so much of?"
"She needn't be alarmed," old Whitey answered. "If Johnnie Green robs herof this one, I'll miss my guess."
"Oh! I'm glad to hear you say that!" Henrietta Hen cried. "Now I won'tneed to worry--that is, if you know what you're talking about."
That, of course, was a most impolite way for Henrietta Hen to speak toanybody of old Whitey's age. Whitey was the oldest hen in the flock. Andwhat she didn't know about such things as nests and eggs and roostswasn't worth knowing.
Polly Plymouth Rock didn't like Henrietta Hen's remark. She opened hermouth.
And no doubt she would have said something quite sharp in reply. But oldWhitey stopped her.
"Never mind!" said Whitey. "The day will come when Henrietta Hen willagree that my guess is a good one."
Still Henrietta Hen felt uneasy about that big, white egg.
"I do hope Johnnie Green won't find this new nest of mine," she remarked.
"If he does, I fear he'll take my beautiful egg away from me."
"Lay another!" said old Whitey. "Lay another and he'll take that andleave this one."
"I suppose I may as well try your scheme," Henrietta replied, "sincenobody suggests anything better."
"My idea's a good one, or I'll miss my guess," said old Whitey.
There was some snickering among Henrietta Hen's callers as they bade hergood afternoon and left her.
"They're laughing at old Whitey," she said to herself. She hadn't theslightest notion that they could be giggling at _her_. "Old Whitey mustbe wrong," she thought. "But I may as well take her advice, for I don'tknow what else to do."
Not long afterward Henrietta Hen came fluttering down from the haymow,squawking at the top of her lungs for old Whitey. And as soon as shefound her, Henrietta cried, "Come up to my nest right away! I want to askyour advice."
Although she didn't say "Please!" old Whitey went with her.
"Come Up to My Nest!" Cried Henrietta Hen. (_Page 50_)]
XI
OLD WHITEY'S ADVICE
Old Whitey--the most ancient hen in the flock--scrambled with somedifficulty up to the top of the haymow in Farmer Green's barn. She couldscarcely keep up with Henrietta Hen, whom she was following--by request.And when she arrived, breathless, at Henrietta's nest that proud andelegant creature turned a troubled face toward her.
"See!" said Henrietta. "I've taken your advice and laid another egg. Butit's nothing like the beautiful, big, white one. This last egg is muchsmaller; and it's brown."
Old Whitey nodded her head. "Well!" she said. "What's your difficulty?"
"Don't you think," said Henrietta, "that if Johnnie Green finds my nesthe'll be sure to take both eggs?"
"No, I don't," was old Whitey's blunt answer.
"Then he'll be sure to take the big, white one," Henrietta Hen wailed.
"No, he won't," old Whitey told her. "If he does, I'll miss my guess."
Well, that was r
eally too much for Henrietta Hen to believe.
"That boy will never take a little egg and leave a big one," shedeclared.
"You wait and see if he doesn't," old Whitey advised her.
So Henrietta waited. Though she had little faith in old Whitey's advice,Henrietta could think of nothing else to do. And the next morning, to hergreat surprise, when Johnnie Green climbed into the haymow and found hernest he took the small brown egg and put it in his hat. And he nevertouched the big, white egg at all. He didn't even pick it up and look atit!
Perched on a beam overhead Henrietta Hen watched him breathlessly. And assoon as he had gone she went flopping down to the barn floor and set up agreat clamor for old Whitey.
"What is it now?" old Whitey asked, sticking her head inside the doorway.
"Your guess was a good one!" cried Henrietta Hen. "He came; and he tookthe small one."
"There!" said old Whitey. "I told you so! I knew Johnnie Green wouldn'trob you of that big egg. And if you keep laying small eggs in that samenest you'll find he'll let you keep the big one."
Henrietta Hen fairly beamed at her companion.
"How delightful!" she exclaimed. "I've become very, very fond of that bigegg. I love to look at it. But there's another thing that worries me now.If that big egg should get broken--"
"Don't let that trouble you!" said old Whitey.
"I'm almost afraid to sit on my nest," Henrietta Hen confessed. "If theshell of that egg should happen to be thin--"