The Tale of Henrietta Hen, Page 3

  Old Whitey seemed much amused by Henrietta's fears.

  "Let me know if you break it," she said. And then she left Henrietta withher treasure.

  "I'll be very careful," Henrietta called after the old dame.

  XII

  PLAYING TRICKS

  Now, the hen known as old Whitey was something of a gossip. She wentstraight to the farmyard and told everybody what had happened--whatHenrietta Hen had said to her and what she had said to Henrietta Hen. Thewhole flock had a great laugh over the affair.

  To Henrietta Hen's delight, all her neighbors took a keen interest in thewonderful white egg. They asked her countless questions about it. Aboveall, they always took pains to inquire whether she had been so unlucky asto crack the shell. And if Henrietta hadn't displeased Polly PlymouthRock one day, the truth might never have come out.

  Anyhow, Polly Plymouth Rock told Henrietta Hen that if she had any senseshe would stop making such a fuss over a china egg.

  "China egg!" cried Henrietta. "I don't know what you mean."

  "That's not a real egg that you're so proud of," Polly Plymouth Rockdeclared. "It's nothing but a make-believe one. Johnnie Green left it inyour nest to fool you, so you'd keep that nest and lay eggs in it, rightalong.... You're so careful not to break that china egg! Why, if you_tried_ to break it you'd find that it's solid as a rock."

  Henrietta Hen couldn't believe the terrible news.

  "I laid that egg myself!" she shrieked.

  "You think you did; but you didn't," Polly Plymouth Rock snapped."Johnnie Green took an egg of yours one day and left that other one inits place, to deceive you. And everybody on the farm--except you--knowsthat he succeeded."

  Henrietta Hen didn't wait to hear anything more. She rushed squallinginto the barn and went straight to her nest. One good, hard peck at thebig white egg told her beyond all doubt that she had been betrayed. Thebeautiful, big, white egg wasn't an egg after all!

  Now that Henrietta Hen knew it she wondered how it could ever havedeceived her. She saw that it was shiny and altogether unlike any egg shehad ever seen anywhere.

  "Johnnie Green has played a mean trick on me," Henrietta Hen cackled."And now I'll play one on him! He can have his old china egg. I'll leaveit here for him. But he'll find none of _my_ beautiful little brown eggsbeside it. I'll have my nest where he'll never discover it--not if hehunts for it all summer long!"

  So saying, she left the haymow. And going into the carriage shed, herroving eyes chanced to light on an old straw hat of Johnnie Green's thatlay upside down upon a high shelf.

  Henrietta Hen managed to flutter up beside it. And then with many achuckle she laid a brown egg in the hat.

  "There!" she cackled. "This is the safest place on the farm. JohnnieGreen hasn't had this hat on his head since last summer."

  XIII

  TWO IN A GARDEN

  Jimmy Rabbit was enjoying a few nibbles at one of Farmer Green'scabbages. He hadn't noticed that there was anybody but himself in thegarden. So it startled him to hear a shrill voice cry, "Get out of ourgarden!"

  Jimmy Rabbit jumped. But he didn't jump far, for he soon saw that it wasonly Henrietta Hen speaking to him.

  "Why should I get out of _our_ garden?" Jimmy Rabbit inquired mildly.

  "I should have said, 'Farmer Green's garden,'" said Henrietta Hen.

  "Thank you very much for the warning; but I don't think we need go awayjust yet--if old dog Spot isn't sniffing around," said Jimmy Rabbit. "Idon't believe there's any danger."

  "You don't understand," Henrietta Hen cried. "I _ordered_ you out of thegarden."

  "_You_ ordered me?" said Jimmy Rabbit, acting as if he were astonished.

  "Yes!" Henrietta declared. "And I'd like to know when you're going toobey me."

  "It's easy to answer that," Jimmy Rabbit replied. "I'm going away as soonas I've finished my luncheon." Nobody could have been pleasanter than he.Yet Henrietta Hen seemed determined to be disagreeable.

  "I don't see your lunch basket," she remarked, looking all around.

  "No!" he replied. "I forgot it. I meant to bring one with me and carry acabbage-head home in it."

  Henrietta Hen spoke as if she were very peevish.

  "You've no right," she said, "to take one of the cabbages away with you."

  "I'm not going to," Jimmy Rabbit explained.

  "You were nibbling at one when I first noticed you," Henrietta Heninsisted.

  "Was I?" he gasped. "Are you sure you're not mistaken? Are you sure youweren't pecking at a cabbage-leaf yourself?"

  Now, the truth of the matter was that Henrietta had herself come to thegarden to eat cabbage. Really she was no better than he was. But somehowHenrietta Hen never could believe that she was in the wrong.

  "You're impertinent," she told Jimmy

  Henrietta Hen Scolds Jimmy Rabbit. (_Page 62_)]

  Rabbit in her severest tone. "You know very well that Farmer Green raisesthese cabbages for home use only."

  "Well," said Jimmy Rabbit, "I'll make myself at home here, then." Andturning a cold shoulder on Henrietta Hen he began nibbling at acabbage-leaf once more.

  Henrietta felt quite helpless. Somehow nothing she could say to theintruder seemed to have the slightest effect on him. And he appeared tobe enjoying his luncheon so thoroughly that it made Henrietta Hen veryhungry just to see him eat. In spite of herself she couldn't resistjoining him at luncheon.

  "Ah!" he exclaimed between mouthfuls, "I see you're making yourself athome, too."

  Henrietta Hen tried to look very dignified. She pecked at the cabbage inan absent-minded fashion, pretending that it was no treat to her. As amatter of fact, she had been trying to get a taste of cabbage for a longwhile. And this was the first time she had managed to crawl through thegarden fence. "One has to eat something," she murmured.

  Jimmy Rabbit smiled slyly. Henrietta Hen couldn't deceive him. He knewthat she was as fond of cabbage as he was himself.

  "Did you ever hear it said," he asked her suddenly, "that eating too muchcabbage causes long ears?"

  XIV

  EARS--SHORT OR LONG

  Henrietta Hen's heart began to thump. She dropped a bit of cabbage out ofher bill, letting it fall as if it burned her. And usually she was verycareful as to her table-manners. "Goodness!" she said to Jimmy Rabbit,who was busily munching cabbage in Farmer Green's garden. "You frightenme!"

  He had just asked her this strange question: "Did you ever hear it saidthat eating too much cabbage causes long ears?" And Henrietta Hen didn'twant long ears. She knew they would be sure to spoil her beauty.

  Jimmy Rabbit had no time to say anything more to Henrietta Hen. Althoughhe had not finished his luncheon he left the garden suddenly--and ingreat haste. For old dog Spot began barking just beyond the fence; andJimmy Rabbit always wanted to get as far from that sound as he could.

  When Spot scurried into the cabbage-patch a little later Henrietta Hencalled to him.

  "What is it?" he asked her impatiently. "I'm in a great hurry. I don'tlike to stop."

  "This is a very important matter," said Henrietta Hen. "Do you likecabbage?" she demanded.

  "Cabbage?" he repeated after her as a puzzled look came over his face.

  "You needn't act so surprised," Henrietta told him coldly. "You didn'tcome running into the garden for nothing. And I have reason to believethat you intended to eat some of Farmer Green's cabbages."

  "What's your reason?" old Spot inquired.

  "You have long ears," said Henrietta.

  "Nonsense!" cried Spot. "What a person eats doesn't make his ears eitherlong or short."

  "Are you sure of that?" Henrietta Hen wanted to know.

  "I've never eaten cabbage in all my life," he declared.

  Still she couldn't rid herself of her fears.

  "Perhaps," she said, "if you had eaten it your ears would have growntwice as long as they are now."

  He shook his head. "I don't think so," he muttered.

  "There's only one way to find
out," Henrietta announced. "Eat a lot ofcabbage--all you can! And we'll soon see whether your ears are growinglonger."

  But old dog Spot refused flatly to do anything of the sort. He said thathis ears suited him quite well, just as they were.

  "What!" Henrietta cried. "Wouldn't you eat cabbage to oblige a lady?"

  Old Spot said he was sorry; but he had no liking for cabbage.

  "How can you tell if you've never tasted it?" she asked.

  He made no answer to that question. Instead, he asked her one of his own.

  "Would you like long ears?" he inquired.

  "Certainly not!" she cried.

  "How can you tell if you've never tried wearing any?" he demanded.

  "Don't be stupid!" she snapped. "None of my family wears ears that can beseen. What a sight I'd be with long ears! Ears are very ugly things, andI only hope that I haven't eaten so much cabbage that mine will begin togrow.... Do you suppose they'd hang down like yours or stick up likeJimmy Rabbit's? He didn't say anything about that."

  Old dog Spot let out a howl.

  "Jimmy Rabbit!" he growled. "Was he talking with you just before Iarrived?"

  "Yes!" said Henrietta. "It was he that asked me if I had ever heard thateating cabbage made a person's ears grow."

  "I might have known that it was that young Rabbit who put such a sillynotion into your head," Spot grumbled. "If you hadn't stopped me I'd havestopped _him_ by this time.... But it's too late now."

  "You don't suppose he was joking, do you?" Henrietta inquired.

  "Of course he was," said Spot--and none too pleasantly.

  "Well," Henrietta mused, as she pecked at a cabbage-leaf, "I must saythat I think the joke's on you."

  XV

  HENRIETTA'S FRIGHT

  When the old horse Ebenezer stood in his stall in the barn he was alwaysglad to talk with anybody that came along.

  Henrietta Hen sometimes strolled into the horse-barn to see if she couldfind a little grain that had spilled on the floor. So it came about thatshe and Ebenezer had many a chat together. Henrietta had no great opinionof horses. She thought that they had altogether more than their share ofgrain.

  But she was willing to pass the time of day with Ebenezer, because he lether walk right into his stall and pick up tidbits that had dropped uponthe floor beneath his manger.

  It was on such an occasion, on a summer's day, that he said to her with asigh, "Haying's going to begin to-morrow."

  Henrietta Hen remarked that she wasn't at all interested in the news."And I don't see why you should sigh," she added. "Goodness knows you'lleat your share of the hay--and probably more--before the winter's over."

  "It's the work that I'm thinking of," Ebenezer explained. "They'll hitchme to the hayrake and Johnnie Green will drive me all day long in the hothayfields. I always hate to hear the clatter of the mowing machine," hegroaned. "It means that the hayrake will come out of the shed next."

  Henrietta Hen caught her breath.

  "The mowing machine!" she gasped. "Is Farmer Green going to use themowing machine now?"

  "Certainly!" said Ebenezer. "I hear he's going to harness the bays to itto-morrow morning."

  "My! my!" Henrietta wailed. "Isn't there any way I can stop him fromdoing that?"

  "I don't know of any," Ebenezer told her. "I've often felt just as you doabout it. There's nobody that dreads hearing the mowing machine more thanI do."

  "You can't feel the way I do," Henrietta declared.

  "On the contrary," the old horse insisted, "I don't see how it can matterto you in the least. _You_ don't have to pull the mowing machine nor thehayrake. Besides, didn't you just tell me that my news about hayingdidn't interest you?"

  "But it does!" Henrietta cried. "I was mistaken. It means _everything_ tome. It's the worst news I ever heard in all my life."

  Old Ebenezer looked down at her with mild astonishment on his long,honest face.

  "Why is it bad news?" he inquired. "If you'll tell me, perhaps I can helpyou."

  So Henrietta Hen explained her difficulty. Whatever it was, it amazedEbenezer. And he had to admit that he could think of no way out of thetrouble.

  "It was very, very careless of you," he told Henrietta. Then suddenly hehad a happy thought. "Cheer up!" he cried. "If Farmer Green sits on them,maybe they'll hatch."

  "Hatch!" she groaned. "They'll _break_!"

  And she ran out of the stall and hurried into the yard.

  She was just in time to hear Farmer Green calling to his son Johnnie.

  "Look here!" said he. "I started to oil the mowing machine so I could useit to-morrow; and just see what I found in the seat!"

  Johnnie Green came a-running. And there in the seat of the mowingmachine, nestling in the hay which had been put there for a cushion thesummer before, three eggs greeted Johnnie's eyes.

  "They must belong to the speckled hen," Johnnie decided. "I knew she'dstolen her nest again. I couldn't find it anywhere." He picked up theeggs and put them in his hat. "She's a sly one," he said.

  That remark made Henrietta Hen somewhat angry. At the same time she wasglad that Farmer Green had discovered the eggs before it was too late.She wouldn't have liked him to sit on them.

  It always upset her to see her eggs broken.

  XVI

  THE ROOSTER UPSET

  During the summer Henrietta Hen roamed about the farmyard as she pleased.To be sure, she always came a-running at feeding time. But except whenthere was something there to eat, she didn't go near the henhouse. She"stole her nest," to use Johnnie Green's words, now in one place and nowin another. And at night she roosted on any handy place in the barn orthe haymow, under the carriage-shed or even over the pigpens.

  However, when the nights began to grow chilly Henrietta was glad enoughto creep into the henhouse with her companions. She always retired early.And being a good sleeper, she slept usually until the Rooster began tocrow towards dawn. Of course now and then some fidgetty hen fancied thatshe heard a fox prowling about and waked everybody else with her squalls.

  Such interruptions upset Henrietta. After the flock had gone to sleepagain Henrietta Hen was more than likely to dream that Fatty Coon was inthe henhouse. And she would squawk right out and start another commotion.

  Luckily such disturbances didn't happen every night. Often nothingoccurred to break the silence of the henhouse. And Henrietta would dreamonly of pleasant things, such as cracked corn, or crisp cabbage-leaves,or bone meal. After dreams of that sort Henrietta couldn't always besure, when the Rooster waked her with his crowing, that she hadn'talready breakfasted. But she would peck at her breakfast, when feedingtime came, and if it tasted good she would know then that the other foodhad been nothing but a dream.

  One night, soon after she had gone back to roost in the henhouse, itseemed to Henrietta that she had scarcely fallen asleep when the Roostercrowed.

  She awoke with a start.

  "Goodness!" she exclaimed under her breath. "I must have slept soundly,for I haven't dreamed a single dream all night long." Then she noticedthat none of the other hens had stirred. "Lazy bones!" Henrietta remarkedto the Rooster. "You won't get 'em up in a hurry. They, don't hear you atall."

  To her surprise she received no answer.

  "He couldn't have heard me," she said to herself. So she repeated herspeech in a louder tone. And still the Rooster made no reply. Henriettacouldn't understand it, he was always so polite to the ladies. Could itbe that he was snubbing her?

  Henrietta grew a bit angry as that thought popped into her head.

  "What's the matter?" she snapped. "Have you lost your voice? It was loudenough to wake me up a few moments ago."

  Receiving no response whatsoever, Henrietta completely lost her temper."I'll see what's wrong with you!" she cackled. And throwing herself offher roost, though it was dark as a pocket in the henhouse, she flungherself upon the perch just opposite, where she knew the Rooster hadslept.

  It was no wonder that Henrietta Hen blundered in the dark. It w
as nowonder that she missed her way and stumbled squarely into the Rooster,knocking him headlong on the floor.

  He set up a terrible clamor. And he made Henrietta Hen angrier than ever,for he cried out in a loud voice something that would have displeasedanybody. "A skunk is after me!" he bawled.

  XVII

  A SIGN OF RAIN

  There was a terrible hubbub in the henhouse. The Rooster squalled soloudly that he waked up every hen in the place. And when they heard himcrying that a skunk had knocked him off his roost they were as frightenedas he was, and set up a wild cackle. All but Henrietta Hen! She knewthere was no skunk there.

  "Don't be a goose--er--don't be a gander!" she hissed to the Rooster."I'm the one that bumped into you."

  The Rooster quickly came to his senses.

  "Don't be alarmed, ladies!" he called to the flock. "There's no danger.There's been a slight mistake." He pretended that he hadn't been scared.But he had been. And now he was somewhat uneasy about Henrietta Hen. Hefeared he was in for a scolding from her.

  "If you had answered me when I spoke to you I wouldn't have left my perchin the dark," she told the Rooster severely. "When I moved to your perchto see what was the matter I blundered into you. And then you thought Iwas a skunk! You owe me an apology, sir!"

  The Rooster was glad it was not lighter in the henhouse, for he felthimself flushing hotly.