THREE CHICKENS RUN AWAY
One would think that with such a good mother as the Barred PlymouthRock Hen, Chickens should have been contented to mind her and followwherever she went, and usually hers did. One day, however, two of thebrothers coaxed their good little sister to go with them to visit theChickens at the farm across the road. The brothers had teased andteased their mother to let them go there, but she had always refused.
"Why?" they said.
"Because," answered the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen, "you have enoughroom and enough playmates right here at home, and I know that you aresafe and well here. I do not know what might happen to you there."
"Oh, _why_ can't we go?" teased the brothers, who had just been givenan answer to that same question, and were very rude to keep on askingit.
Of course the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen had had too much experiencewith Chickens to reply again to a question which should not have beenasked the second time, and might better not have been asked the first.So she just turned her back and walked off, clucking to her brood asshe went. The brothers who had been teasing did not like that at all,and they put their naughty little heads together and decided to runaway.
"Let's get Little Sister to go along," said Older Brother.
"Why?" asked Younger Brother. "She can't run as fast as we can, andshe's so good that it wouldn't be much fun anyway. We wouldn't getacross the road before she'd want to come back and be afraid ourmother would worry about us."
"That is just why I want her to go along," said Older Brother. "We'llget her to go, and then our mother will think that we are not anyworse than she is, and perhaps she won't peck us so hard when we getback."
"All right," said Younger Brother, fluttering his wings withimpatience. "Let's get her right now. I know our mother won't scoldher."
You see both of the brothers forgot that the reason why their motherhad never scolded Little Sister was that Little Sister had never doneanything wrong. She was really the best Chicken in the brood, and shehad such a sweet way of running to the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen duringthe day and cuddling close to her for a short rest, that it was notstrange her mother was especially fond of her.
Now the two naughty brothers found Little Sister and began talking toher. "Ever been across the road?" asked Older Brother, carelessly, ashe snapped off a blade of grass.
"No," said Little Sister. "Mother never goes."
"There are some very jolly Chickens on that farm," remarked YoungerBrother. "One of them asked us to come over a little while ago."
"Wouldn't it be fun!" exclaimed Little Sister. "Let's ask Mother if wecan't all go."
"Aw, they won't want the whole brood at once," said Older Brother."Besides, our mother is way over in the edge of the pasture now, andthere isn't any use in bothering her. I tell you what let's do. Let'sjust go down to our side of the road and see if those other Chickensare there now. Then we can ask them if they don't want us to come oversome other day."
You see the brothers knew that it would never do to ask their sisterto run away with them at first, for she would have said "No," and runoff to tell the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen, and that would have spoiledall their naughty fun.
The three little White Plymouth Rocks put down their heads andscurried along as fast as they could toward the road. Older Brotherplanned it so that the fence should hide them from their mother asthey ran, but he said nothing of this to Little Sister, for she wasnot used to being naughty, and he knew that he would have to go aboutit very carefully to get her to run away. When they reached the roadthey saw the Chickens on the other side, but they were well withintheir own farm-yard.
"Oh, isn't that too bad!" exclaimed Little Sister. "Now you can't askthem what you wanted to."
"We might run over and speak to them about it now," said YoungerBrother. "Mother won't care. After we have come so far to see them, itseems too bad to miss our chance. Come on and we can be across beforethat team gets here." Both the brothers put down their heads and ranas fast as they could, and Little Sister followed after them. Whenthey were on the other side she began to cry and wanted to go back.
"I n-n-never did such a thing in all my l-l-life," she sobbed, "and Iknow our mother won't like it. Let's go right back."
"Oh, don't act like a Gosling," said Older Brother. "You're over herenow and you might as well have a good time. What if our mother doesscold when we get back? She never wants us to have a bit of fun, andwe're just as safe here as we were at home."
Little Sister did not feel at all happy, still, you know how hard itis to stop being naughty when you have once begun, and she found ithard. She would gladly have returned at once if her brothers had beenwilling to go with her, but when she found that they were going tostay, she stayed with them. The Chickens whom they were visiting werevery jolly and full of fun, although they were of common families andhad not been carefully brought up. They did many things which thelittle White Plymouth Rocks had never been allowed to do, and in ashort time the visitors were doing just the same as they.
These Chickens even made fun of each other when they had accidents,and Little Sister heard them laughing at three or four who were actingas though they were sick and opening their bills very wide. "What isthe matter with those Chickens?" she asked.
"Oh, they have the gapes," answered one of the Chickens who livedthere, and then he began speaking of something else.
It is very sad to have to tell such a thing, but the truth is that thethree White Plymouth Rock Chickens did not return to their home untilnearly roosting-time. Even Little Sister pecked and squabbled andacted like the rest. They walked up the tongue of a hay wagon thatstood in the yard, and scrambled and fluttered until they were on theedge of the rack. "Dare you to fly down into the old hen-yard," saidone of the Chickens who lived on the place. "We used to live in thereuntil a few days ago, and then the Farmer turned us out and shut thegate after us."
"Why did he do that?" asked Older Brother.
"I don't know," was the answer. "Nobody knows why Farmers do things. Ithink he did it just to be mean. There were fine Angleworms in there,and now we can't get one of them. Dare you to fly down there! You canget out somehow."
Older Brother was not brave enough to refuse, so over he flew, andYounger Brother came after him. The other Chickens fluttered alongwith them and Younger Brother gave Little Sister a shove that sent herover the fence when he went. They found a great many Angleworms there,and ate and ate and ate, and tried to get the largest ones away fromeach other; but after a while the Farmer's Wife saw them and camerunning to shoo them out with her apron. Little Sister was really gladwhen this happened, for she had found no place where she could crawlthrough the fence. She would have told her brothers about it if shehad not feared that they would laugh at her and call her a coward. Shedid not know that each of them was thinking the same thing and darednot speak of it for the same reason. Of course the Chickens who livedon that farm all the time did not care so much. Naughty Chickens,like the three little run-aways, are almost sure to think about theirmothers when the sun begins to set and the shadows on the grass growlong. Then they begin to think about home, too, and wish that they didnot have to be ashamed of themselves.
When these brothers and their sister got out of the hen-yard, theystarted straight for home. At first they ran, and quite fast too, butas they got nearer they began to go more slowly, and once in a whileone of them would stop to peck at something or other. You see theywere thinking of what the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen would be likely tosay to them. They thought that they would find her in the old coopwhere they had lived when first hatched. They ran the fields now, yetalways went back there to spend the nights.
They were trying so hard to find excuses for themselves that they didnot notice the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen behind the stone-pile in thelane. She had got the rest of her brood settled in the coop for thenight and then started out in search of the wanderers. As soon as theypassed the stone-pile, she ducked her head and ran after them as fastas she could, dragging t
he tips of her wings on the ground and peckingat them hard and fast. You should have seen them run. They flutteredtheir wings wildly and never thought of making excuses. The one thingthey remembered was that if they only reached the coop they couldcrawl in under their good brothers and sisters and be safe from theirmother's bill.
Little Sister got punished as well as her brothers, and that wasperfectly right. For she need not have gone with them, even if theydid ask her. It may be that her mother did not peck her quite so hardas she did the others, but it was hard enough to make her glad toreach the coop at last. The good Chickens were almost asleep whenthese three dived in under them, and it took some time for them all toget settled again. The Barred Plymouth Rock Hen sat down beside thepile of her children and looked very hot and severe, yet she did notscold them then.
The rest of the brood were sound asleep when Little Sister slipped outfrom under them to cuddle close to her mother. She could not sleepuntil she had confessed it all, and that shows that she was a goodChicken at heart. When she told about their getting into the closedhen-yard, and how they had been driven out of it, the Barred PlymouthRock Hen looked very much startled. "Did any of your playmates overthere go around with their mouths open?" said she.
"Oh yes," replied Little Sister. "A good many of them did, and therest of us laughed at them." Then she drooped her head because shefelt ashamed of having been so rude.
"I am afraid the punishment I gave you will be only a small part ofit," said the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen; "but now you must go to sleep,and we will not talk any more of your naughtiness. You did quite rightto tell me all about it."
Tales of a Poultry Farm Page 10