"Are you going to show it to me?" she asked her grandfather.
"Some day," he replied, "but there's too much else to see this morning. The garden can wait."
So Mary Jane and her grandmother went to the chicken yard and Grandfather started for the barn to finish his work.
If you've ever seen about a hundred cunning, little, yellow and white and gray chickens, so soft and fluffy they look as though they were Easter trimmings; and dozens of motherly looking hens ambling around and a few big, important-looking roosters crowing in the sunshine, you know just what Mary Jane saw when they reached the chicken yard. For her part, Mary Jane had never seen such a sight before, and she was so surprised and pleased she could hardly believe her eyes.
"Are they all yours, Grandmother?" she asked in amazement.
"I should say they are," laughed Grandmother. "You stand right here—no, that rooster won't come any closer," she added as one big fellow crowed loudly near by. "You stay here till I get some feed and you shall see a funny sight."
She slipped into the chicken house and returned in a minute with a small basket of grain. "Here, Mary Jane," she said, "you hold this so—and throw the grain out on the ground so—" and she did just as she wanted Mary Jane to do, "and watch them come!"
Mary Jane reached her hand into the basket of grain, took out a handful and threw it far as she could; and then how she did laugh as she saw the chickens scramble for it!
"Can I do it again?" she asked delightedly.
"All you like till the grain is gone," replied Grandmother.