Bobby of Cloverfield Farm

by Helen Fuller Orton

Next, she went over to the big garden and found Father's radish bed. The ground in it was so soft that it was a fine place for scratching.

So she called, "Cluck, cluck, cluck!" and her thirteen chicks came running, and she scratched all over the radish bed, to find something for them to eat.

And all the little radish plants were scratched up.

One would think that the Old Brown Hen would not have needed to scratch any more. But it takes a great deal to feed thirteen hungry, growing chicks.

So she kept hunting for other places to scratch; and it was not long before she found Bobby's onion bed.

Now Bobby had hoed in it and dug in it so much just the day before, that it was very soft and just beau-ti-ful for scratching.

"What good luck!" thought the Old Brown Hen. "A finer place for scratching I never saw."

"Cluck, cluck, cluck!" she called; and her thirteen chicks came running, and she scratched all over the onion bed, to find something for them to eat.

And all the little onion plants were scratched up.

Then, because they had eaten all they wanted, she wallowed in the soft earth until she had made a nice, comfortable place to sit.