“Cows. Didn’t you ever see cows before? Oh, my! You certainly don’t know much,” said the chicken scornfully.
The little ducklings looked at the cows with awe. Any one of those great feet, if it happened to tread on them would crush them as easily as though they were beetles or tadpoles.
“And where’s your friend, Mr. Tige?”
“Old Tige?” said the chicken, hesitatingly. “Well, you see he may be asleep. If he is I wouldn’t like to waken him. He has to bark so much in the night that sometimes he’s very tired in the day-time.”
“But can’t we just see what he looks like?”
“Well—come on; maybe I can show you. He lives in that dog house over there.”
The chicken led the way toward the dog house, and the ducklings followed him. He walked on his tip-toes, and kept whispering to the ducklings not to make a noise. They might almost have thought that he was afraid of Tige if he hadn’t told them he wasn’t.
They reached the dog house and peeped around the corner of it. There, sure enough, lay old Tige in the sunshine, fast asleep. He was a big, fierce looking brindled dog. Now and then he twitched his ear or moved his paw in his dreams. It frightened the ducklings even to look at him.
When the chicken saw the dog was asleep he grew much bolder. “Yes, there he is, fast asleep, just like I told you,” he said. “Do you see that bone there by his nose? If he was only awake I’d ask him to give it to you. He would do it I know, if I asked him.”
Just then the great dog woke and opened one eye a little, but the chicken did not notice that, he was so busy boasting to the ducklings.