Then she remembered how they had spoken of their legs aching, and how glad they were to be free on the grass once more. “I don’t know that I would really care about travelling,” she added, “but I would like to live in such style with a lot of fowls of my own family.”
She remembered what the Cock had said about their having to stay in their own yard, and she added, “But I would not want to have to stay always in the same place.”
She thought a little while longer and laughed aloud. “I believe that I would really rather be just what I happen to be,” said she. “I don’t know why I never thought of that before.”
You can see that she was a most sensible Hen. Many fowls never stop to think that if they were to change places with others, they would have to stand the unpleasant as well as the pleasant part of the change.
The little white Chickens came crowding up to their gray mother. “Tell us what made you laugh,” they said. “Please tell us.”
Her small round eyes twinkled. “I was laughing,” she said, “just because I am myself and not somebody else.”
“We don’t see anything very funny about that,” they exclaimed. “Who else could you be?”
The Barred Plymouth Rock Hen sent them off to chase a Butterfly, and went to call on her nearest neighbor. “I would like to tell them,” she said, “but they are too young to understand it yet.”