“COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!” SAID THE YOUNG COCK. [Page 26]
The Man, the Woman, and the two Little Girls all started to pick up the Baby, who was so wound up in his long cloak that he could not rise. Brownie looked around in a friendly way and stood perfectly still, instead of edging off toward the barn as some Horses would have done, while the Baby just rolled over on his back and laughed.
“Gobble-gobble-gobble!” said the Gobbler. “I think this family will suit us very well.”
The Barred Plymouth Rock Hen was too polite a fowl ever to say “I told you so,” but she stood very straight and chuckled softly to herself, so the rest could know that she was pleased with what she saw, and felt more certain than ever that the Man and his family were no common people.
All the family went to the barn with the Man while he unharnessed Brownie and gave him his supper. The children had a happy time on the hay, and, before they went into the house together, the Man put some corn in a pan and let them scatter it by the door for the poultry. “They have been running loose in the fields,” he said, “and they may not need it all, but we will give it to them anyway, and to-morrow I will study my book of directions and see how they should be fed at this season.”
The children scattered the corn, the Woman kneeling down with her arm around the Baby, to keep him from falling over each time that he threw a few kernels. The Barred Plymouth Rock Hen was the first to come forward to pick it up, and the Man told his wife how he and she had eaten bread and salt at noon.
Then the Woman said: “Come, we must go into the house! I should have been there working long ago, but I wanted to see the children make friends with the poultry.”
As the door of the house closed behind its new inmates, the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen could not help looking at the Shanghai Cock. “Yes,” he said, for he knew what she meant, “I like your friends very much. They seem to have some sense.” Then the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen was satisfied, for she was fond of the Shanghai Cock, and praise from him was praise indeed.