“In what sense?” said Royal.
“Why, as long as she would be likely to water them; which is a very different thing. Perhaps she would not have been willing to make the bargain with you, if she had understood that she could not keep them fresh by watering them, more than a day or two.”
While they had been talking thus, they had gradually been walking towards the house, and they had now reached the door. Miss Anne went in, and Lucy and Royal went to the hen-coop to see the hen and chickens.
Lucy went to get some corn, but Joanna told her that crumbs of bread would be better, and then the old hen could break them up into small pieces, and feed her chickens with them. She accordingly gave her some small pieces of bread, which Lucy carried back; and she and Royal amused themselves for a long time, by throwing crumbs in through the spaces between the sticks.
While they were talking about them, Royal happened to speak of them as his hen and chickens, and Lucy said that she thought he ought not to have them all. She wanted some herself,—at least some of the chickens.
“O no,” said Royal; “they are altogether mine; it is my coop.”
“No,” replied Lucy; “I helped you make the coop, and I mean to have some of the chickens.”
“Yes, but, Lucy, you promised me that I should have the coop and the hens, if I would make you a garden.”
“Yes, but not the chickens,” said Lucy; “I did not say a word about the chickens.”
“O Lucy, that was because we did not expect to have any chickens; but it is all the same thing.”