“So will I,” said Younger Brother. “I wish we hadn’t coaxed Little Sister to go along.”
By this time they had reached the place where the Man was working. It seemed a long while before he noticed that three of them were sick. When he did, he put his hat on the back of his head and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. His handkerchief was white. The Farmer had always carried red ones, and the Gobbler was much pleased when he found that the Man did not.
“I wonder what is the matter with those Chickens,” said the Man. “They must be sick in some way. I will look it up in one of my books.”
That was why, soon after this, the Man came from the house with a small book and seated himself on the wheel-barrow to read. He would look at the page for a few minutes, then put his finger on a certain part of it and watch the sick Chickens. At last he arose and put the book in his pocket. Then he got a box and a piece of burlap. He also had a pan with some white powder in it. He set these down close together and threw grain to the Chickens. When they came to pick it up he caught the sick ones and put them into the box. “Oh! Oh!” they cried. “Mother! Mother! The Man has caught us! The Man has caught us!”
“Keep still! Keep still!” clucked the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen. “The Man has to catch you before he can cure you.” She spoke as though she was not in the least frightened, but the truth is that she was very badly scared. She could not stand still, and kept walking to and fro, clucking as fast as she could. She had never seen anybody use a box and powder for Chickens that had the gapes. The Farmer had always made loops of Horse-hair and put them down the Chickens’ throats to catch and draw out the tiny Worms. That was bad enough, and always hurt the Chickens, but she had never told them beforehand that it would hurt. You can see that she was a very brave Hen, for she made her children stand the hard times that would make them better, and a Hen needs to be very brave for that.
Now the Man covered the open top of the box with burlap and began to sift the white powder through it.
“Ow!” said Older Brother, coughing as though he would never stop. “Ow! Ow! I can’t breathe! I am stifling!”
“Ow!” said Younger Brother. “Ow! Ow! I can’t stop coughing!”
“Ow!” said Little Sister. “Ow! Ow! Isn’t this dreadful!”
The three Chicks staggered around in the box, coughing just as hard as they could. The dust which came down through the burlap seemed to bite and sting their throats, and very soon they were coughing so hard that they could not speak at all. The Man was coughing too, but he did not stop for that. The Chickens who were well could not understand what the Man was doing to the sick ones, and it was a very sad time for the whole family. At last the Man uncovered the box and lifted the Chickens out. They could not stop coughing all at once, yet they managed to get over to where their mother was. Then she spread her wings and tried to cover them, as she had done when they were first hatched. She could not do it, because they were so big; still, it comforted them to have her try, and after a while they were able to speak.