A little tapping sound.
Several of the hens were sitting on their eggs, and Joan was told she mustn’t go near them or disturb them at all. While a hen is sitting she doesn’t want to be bothered to think of anything else except how she can best keep her eggs warm and safe. She has to be careful and patient till the chicks are ready to come out. This is an exciting time, and Joan used often to think about it. She did wish so she might see a chicken burst through its shell. She imagined there would be a little tapping sound, and that the other chickens would be very interested and listen, and then the shell would suddenly open and out would spring a fluffy yellow chicken. She had been to a pantomime once called “Aladdin,” and there had been a huge egg, supposed to be a Roc’s egg. In the last scene this egg was in the middle of the stage. A dancer struck it with a wand, when it opened, and out sprang a full grown fairy, dressed in orange and gold, with a skirt of fluffy yellow feathers. Somehow Joan had always imagined a chicken would begin its life in this dramatic way.
CHAPTER II
THE WORM
As yet only one small family of chickens had come out of their eggs but they were quite enough for Joan to play with. She soon made friends with them and gave them all names. There were: Honeypot, Darkie, Piggy, Fluffy, Cheeky, Dolly and Long-legs. Darkie was rather different from the others; he was a lively little chick with a dark coat and white shirt front. Cheeky was the boldest and most impudent. He would cock his little head on one side and stare at Joan, and he was always the last to run to Mother Hen if anything was the matter.
Dolly found a worm.