The girl looked at her in surprise.
“Oh, madame!” she asked sorrowfully, “do you mean that I must take the eggs of the dear little birds that sing in the forest?”
“Of course not,” her mistress replied, thinking her very silly, “I want hen’s eggs, not bird’s eggs.”
But Marie looked more amazed than before.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘hens,’” she said. “We have none of them here.”
“You have no hens!” the woman exclaimed. “How can that be?”
Then she remembered that this was a village of poor peasants and that only the rich had chickens, because they had just been brought to Europe from Asia, and were very costly. So she bade the old man Kuno go to the city across the mountains and bring her everything she needed.
“And be sure not to forget the cock and hens,” she called after him as he rode away.
Late that afternoon the man returned, and the woman met him at the door. “Have you brought the chickens?” she asked.