“Then why do you stop talking to me?” says the sheep-dog, in his short way; “your wife’s bad enough, I’ll warrant me; and a drop of water with the dew in it is the thing to do her good. Be off with you! The farmer is coming to lay the spring dry this morning. I left him sharpening his mattock when I set out. You’ll be too late, if you don’t mind!” and with that the sheep-dog went his way.
“An unmannerly fellow,” says Cock-alu, and stood looking after him; “I’ll not go at his bidding, not I!” So he clapped his wings and crowed in the wood, just to show that he set light by his advice. “And never to give me anything for poor Hen-alie, that lies sick at home with a bean in her throat! The ill-natured churl!” cried Cock-alu to himself, and then he stood and crowed again with all his might.
After that he marched on, and before long reached the Beech-wood, but as the silver-spring lay yet a good way off, he had not gone far in the wood before he met the squirrel.
“Good morning, squirrel,” says he; “what brings you abroad so early?”
“Early do you call it, Cock-alu?” says the squirrel; “why, I’ve been up these four hours; I just stopped to give the young ones their breakfasts, and then set off to silver-spring for a drop of water while the dew was in it; I’ve got it here in a cherry-leaf. And pray you, what business may take you abroad, Cock-alu?”
“The same as yours,” replied Cock-alu; “I’m going for water, too, for my wife Hen-alie, who has got a bean in her throat.”
“Ah, well-a-day!” says the squirrel, “that’s a bad thing! But run along with you; for the old sow is coming down with her nine little pigs, and if they trouble the water it will be all too late for poor little Hen-alie!”
And with that the squirrel leaped up into the oak-tree above where Cock-alu stood, for that was her way home, and left him without further ceremony.
“Humph!” said Cock-alu; “she might have given me some of the water out of her cherry-leaf for my poor little Hen-alie!” And so saying, he walked on through the Beech-wood, and as he met no more creatures he soon reached the silver-spring.