Among the Farmyard People | Page 8

among the Black Spanish Hens. We lay the eggs and
somebody else hatches them. But if I had been on the nest as long as
Mrs. Dorking has, do you suppose I'd let any fowl speak to me as you
spoke to her? I'd--I'd--" and she was so angry that she couldn't say
another word, but just strutted up and down and cackled.
A motherly old Shanghai Hen flew up beside Mrs. Dorking. "We are
very sorry for you," she said. "I know how I should have felt if I had
broken my two-yolked egg just as it was ready to hatch."
The Bantam Hen picked her way to the nest. "What a dear little
Chicken!" she cried, in her most comforting tone. "He is so plump and
so bright for his age. But, my dear, he is chilly, and I think you should
cuddle him under your wings until his down is dry."
The Dorking Hen flew down. "He is a dear," she said, "and yet when he
was hatched I didn't care much for him, because I had thought so long

about the shiny egg. It serves me right to lose that one, because I have
been so foolish. Still, I do not know how I could stand it if it were not
for my good neighbors."
While Mrs. Dorking was talking with the Bantam by her nest, the Black
Spanish Hen scratched a hole in the earth under the perches, poked the
pieces of the shiny egg into it, and covered them up. "I never raise
Chickens myself," she said, "but if I did----"
The Shanghai Cock walked away with the Dorking Cock. "I'm sorry for
you," he said, "and I am more sorry for Mrs. Dorking. She is too fine a
Hen to be spoken to as you spoke to her this morning, and I don't want
to hear any more of your fault-finding. Do you understand?" And he
ruffled his neck feathers and stuck his face close to that of the Dorking
Cock. They stared into each other's eyes for a minute; then the Dorking
Cock, who was not so big and strong as the Shanghai, shook his head
and answered sweetly, "It was rude of me. I won't do it again."
From that day to this, nobody in the poultry yard has ever spoken of the
shiny egg, and the Dorkings are much liked by the other fowls. Yet if it
had not been for her trouble, Mrs. Dorking and her neighbors would
never have become such good friends. The little Dorkings are fine,
fat-breasted Chicks, with the extra toe on each foot of which all that
family are so proud.

THE DUCKLING WHO DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO
"Quack! Quack!" called the Duck who had been sitting on her nest so
long. "My first egg is cracked, and I can see the broad yellow bill of my
eldest child. Ah! Now I can see his downy white head." The Drake
heard her and quacked the news to every one around, and flapped his
wings, and preened his feathers, for was not this the first Duckling ever
hatched on the farm?
The Drake had not been there long himself. It was only a few days
before the Duck began sitting that she and her five sisters had come

with him to this place. It had not taken them long to become acquainted
with the other farmyard people, and all had been kind to them. The
Geese had rather put on airs, at first, because they were bigger and had
longer legs, but the Ducks and Drake were too wise to notice this in
any way, and before long the Geese were as friendly as possible. They
would have shown the Ducks the way to the water if it had been
necessary, but it was not, for Ducks always know without being told
just where to find it. They know, and they do not know why they know.
It is one of the things that are.
Now that the first Duckling had chipped the shell, everybody wanted to
see him, and there was soon a crowd of fowls around the nest watching
him free himself from it. The Drake stood by, as proud as a Peacock. "I
think he looks much like his mother," said he.
"Yes, yes," cackled all the Hens. "The same broad yellow bill, the same
short yellow legs, and the same webbed feet."
The mother Duck smiled. "He looks more like me now than he will by
and by," she said, "for when his feathers grow and cover the down, he
will have a stiff little one curled up on his back like the Drake's. And
really, except for the curled feather, his father and I look very much
alike."
"That is