Arthur Scott Bailey

“ It wasn't far to the edge of the cornfield from the farmyard fence. And Henrietta Hen was quick to discover that the freshly ploughed and harrowed field offered a fine place to scratch for all kinds of worms and bugs and grubs.
Not being what you might call a wise bird—like old Mr. Crow—Henrietta didn't know that Farmer Green had carefully planted corn in that field, in long rows. ”

“ She set her basket down on the ground; and pushing her spectacles forward to the end of her nose, she leaned over and looked closely at Henrietta Hen. Aunt Polly's gaze travelled over Henrietta from head to foot and then back again. And she took hold of one of Henrietta's feathers and gave it a gentle twitch.
"Look out!" Henrietta cried. "You'll pull it out if you're not careful. And I can't afford to lose any more feathers than I have to."
"Don't worry!" Aunt Polly Woodchuck advised her. "Cheer up! There's nothing the matter with you. You are molting. ”

“ Henrietta Hen didn't wait to hear any more. She turned and hurried back, to gather her youngsters and bid everybody another farewell.
Amid a great clucking and squawking, Johnnie Green and his father put Henrietta and her chicks into the pen and placed it in the back of the wagon.
"We're all ready!" Henrietta cried to Ebenezer. The old horse didn't even turn his head, for he could see backwards as well as forwards, because he wore no blinders. ”

“ Most of Henrietta's neighbors did not show any great curiosity to see the surprise. They smiled at one another. "She's laid another egg—that's all!" they whispered.
But there are always some that can't rest until they know everybody else's business. And it was lucky that Henrietta Hen hurried home to receive her callers, because she had a good many. They came even earlier in the afternoon than was strictly fashionable. And they came in a crowd, too. That, however, didn't bother Henrietta Hen. ”

“ Henrietta informed her chicks. "Some strange people, like old dog Spot, jump right into it. And how they manage to keep well is more than I can understand. Dust baths are the only safe ones."
So much did she fear water that Henrietta Hen wouldn't even let her children walk in the grass until the sun had dried the morning's dew. And the first sprinkle of rain was enough to send her scurrying for cover, calling frantically for her chicks to hurry. ”

“ Henrietta Hen was altogether too pleased with herself and her new family to pay much attention to anybody else's remarks.
"I hope," said Henrietta, "that you'll all come to see my family often. As the youngsters grow, I'm sure they'll get handsomer every day."
The neighbors thanked her. And crowding about old Whitey they moved away. Old Whitey just had to go too. [Pg 10] She couldn't help spluttering a little.
"What a vain, empty-headed creature Henrietta Hen is!" she exclaimed. "She doesn't know that one of her brood is nothing but a duckling!" ”

“ I always hate to hear the clatter of the mowing machine," he groaned. "It means that the hayrake will come out of the shed next."
Henrietta Hen caught her breath.
"The mowing machine!" she gasped. [Pg 72] "Is Farmer Green going to use the mowing machine now?"
"Certainly!" said Ebenezer. "I hear he's going to harness the bays to it to-morrow morning."
"My! my!" Henrietta wailed. "Isn't there any way I can stop him from doing that?"
"I don't know of any," Ebenezer told her. "I've often felt just as you do about it. There's nobody that dreads hearing the mowing machine more than I do." ”

“ Henrietta would have felt quite glum, except that she couldn't very well mope in the midst of the terrific racket all about her. Soon her neighbors—both Number 1 and Number 2—were having loud disputes with the hens in the pens on the further side of them. It seemed as if every hen at the fair had left her manners at home—if she ever had any.
"Goodness!" Henrietta Hen murmured to herself. "If there's a prize, it [Pg 112] must be for the one that can make the most noise."
In a little while throngs of men, women and children crowded into the Poultry Hall. ”

“ She wouldn't believe that there were any eggs in the world to compare with hers. So her neighbors learned after a while that they might as well let Henrietta Hen manage her affairs as she pleased. They couldn't help hoping, however, that somehow Farmer Green would find a way to outwit her.
"What can Henrietta Hen be so boastful about now?" the hens asked one another one day. "She acts as if she thought more highly of herself than ever." ”

“ Henrietta Hen didn't understand her.
"I'm going to win the first prize—with my chicks," Neighbor Number 2 announced. "Of course that's worth waiting here a week."
"I don't see how you can win the first prize!" Henrietta exclaimed.
"Why not?" demanded the other. And she pressed against the wire netting of her pen and stuck her head through it as far as she could, as if she would have pecked Henrietta had she been able to.
"Because—" Henrietta explained—"because the lady on the other side of me is going to win it." ”

“ Henrietta Hen tried to look very dignified. She pecked at the cabbage in an absent-minded fashion, pretending that it [Pg 63] was no treat to her. As a matter of fact, she had been trying to get a taste of cabbage for a long while. And this was the first time she had managed to crawl through the garden fence. "One has to eat something," she murmured.
Jimmy Rabbit smiled slyly. Henrietta Hen couldn't deceive him. He knew that she was as fond of cabbage as he was himself.
"Did you ever hear it said," he asked her suddenly, "that eating too much cabbage causes long ears?" ”

“ I don't like to stop."
"This is a very important matter," said Henrietta Hen. "Do you like cabbage?" 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't come [Pg 66] running into the garden for nothing. And I have reason to believe that 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 either long or short." ”

“ They had strayed down by the duck-pond—had Henrietta and her children, stopping here and there to scratch for some tidbit, or to flutter in an inviting dust-heap. Once they had reached the bank of the pond Henrietta began to wish she hadn't brought her family in that [Pg 14] direction. For one of the youngsters—the one that never would hurry in out of the rain—insisted on toddling down to the water's edge.
"Come away this instant!" Henrietta shrieked, as soon as she noticed where he was. "You'll get your feet wet the first thing you know." ”

“ Never in all her life had Henrietta Hen seen so many hens and roosters and chicks as she found on every side of her, at the fair. Farmer Green and his son Johnnie had set her pen in the Poultry Hall. And to Henrietta's surprise, none of her new neighbors paid much attention to her and her chicks—at first. ”

“ Somebody has to lay the littlest ones!"
Such jibes were certain to make Henrietta Hen lose her temper. And she would talk very fast (and, alas! very loud, too) about jealous neighbors and how unpleasant it was to live among folk that were so stingy of their praise that they couldn't say a good word for the finest eggs that [Pg 5] ever were seen! On such occasions Henrietta Hen generally talked in a lofty way about moving to the village to live.
"They think enough of my eggs down there," she would boast. "Boiled, fried, poached, scrambled, or for an omelette—my eggs can't be beaten." ”

“ They told her she was ungrateful.
"Farmer Green gives you a snug home and plenty of food," they reminded her. "And the least you can do is to repay him. You ought not to make trouble 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 were undersized I shouldn't mind losing them as fast as I laid them. But I lay the biggest and finest eggs to be had. So it's only natural that I should like to have at least one around to look at—and to show to callers." ”

“ All but Henrietta Hen! She knew there 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. [Pg 82] 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. He feared he was in for a scolding from her.
"If you had answered me when I spoke to you I wouldn't have left my perch in the dark," she told the Rooster severely. ”

“ Polly asked. "Is Henrietta in danger of losing this egg that she thinks so much of?"
"She needn't be alarmed," old Whitey answered. "If Johnnie Green robs her of this one, I'll miss my guess."
"Oh! I'm glad to hear you say that!" Henrietta Hen cried. "Now I won't need [Pg 48] 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 to anybody of old Whitey's age. Whitey was the oldest hen in the flock. And what she didn't know about such things as nests and eggs and roosts wasn't worth knowing. ”

“ It isn't fair! We've been cheated!" Henrietta Hen's nearest neighbors clamored. But nobody paid any attention to them.
As for Henrietta, she didn't quite know how to act. She had intended, when she left home, to do a good deal of strutting back and forth in her pen, with now and then a pause to preen herself, to make sure that she looked her best. But somehow [Pg 117] she no longer cared to put on grand airs, as of old. She remembered that some of the other hens at the fair had been haughty and proud and had smoothed their feathers, declaring boldly that they expected to win the first prize. ”

“ 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 that he had an excellent opinion of himself. He had a way of walking about the farmyard that said quite plainly that he believed himself to be a person of great importance. ”

“ None of my family wears ears that can be seen. What a sight I'd be with long ears! Ears are very ugly things, and I only hope that I haven't eaten so much cabbage that mine will begin to grow.... Do you suppose they'd hang down like yours or stick up like Jimmy Rabbit's? ”

“ She hasn't any more chance of winning than—than you have!"
Now, Henrietta Hen couldn't help being puzzled. But whoever might win the first prize, she was sure it couldn't be she. Hadn't her neighbors on either side of her the same as told her that she couldn't win? ”

“ Polly Plymouth Rock told Henrietta one day. "Everybody knows you have to beat eggs to make an omelette."
Henrietta Hen didn't know what to say to that. It was almost the only time she was ever known to be silent.
[Pg 6] IIA FINE FAMILY
Henrietta Hen's neighbors paid little attention to her boasting, because they had to listen to it so often. At last, however, there came a day when she set up such a cackling as they had never heard from her before. She kept calling out at the top of her lungs, "Come-come-come! See-what-I've-got! Come-come-come! See-what-I've-got!" ”

“ This series of animal stories for children from three to eight years, tells of the adventures of the four-footed creatures of our American woods and fields in an amusing way, which delights small two-footed human beings. ”

“ That remark made Henrietta Hen somewhat angry. At the same time she was glad that Farmer Green had discovered the eggs before it was too late. She [Pg 75] wouldn't have liked him to sit on them.
It always upset her to see her eggs broken.
[Pg 76] XVITHE 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 when there 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 now in another. ”