"Because the hen that sat on these eggs is about to boil."
"Why, that is not the hen that was to be cooked for dinner to-day, but the one that I picked yesterday and put in the cupboard!" The good woman shook her head in despair and went away.
How long Loony John sat on the nest cannot be told, but one day, some time afterward, he was passing by a farm where he saw a woman picking a chicken and carefully placing the feathers to one side. Loony John was very much interested in this, and so he said to her:
"Please, ma'am, tell me what you are doing with those feathers?"
The woman was not without humor, and she replied:
"Why do you ask such a simple question? I am going to plant the feathers, of course. Doesn't your mother plant the feathers she picks from chickens?"
"My gracious! No!"
"Well, then, it is because she doesn't own any Catchmeddler hens."
"Why do you plant the feathers?" inquired Loony John.