ope you don't mind my speaking of it. I always say what I think. It's
just my way, and I never remember it afterward." She gave a graceful
flutter and a queer little squawk, and was off before the Gobbler got
over his surprise.

Fowls do enjoy a joke, and now the Dorking Cock took his turn. "I've
always wanted to know how you spread your tail in that fashion. It's a
good time to see." He walked up beside the Gobbler and pecked and pulled
until three feathers lay on the ground. "Ah," said the Dorking Cock, "I
see I loosened some of your tail feathers. I hope you don't mind. It is
just my way, when I want to know about anything, to find out as soon as
I can."

And so one fowl after another teased and troubled the Gobbler, and
explained afterward that "it was just their way." Then they laughed at
him and ran off.

It would be nice if one could say that the Gobbler never again lost his
temper, but he did, a great many times, for he should have begun to
master it when he was a Chick. But one can tell truly that he never
again excused his crossness by saying that "it was only his way." The
youngest Duckling in the poultry-yard had always known that this was no
excuse at all, and that if people have disagreeable habits which make
others unhappy, it is something of which they should be much ashamed.

THE BRAGGING PEACOCK

The farmyard people will never forget the coming of the Peacock; or
rather they will never forget the first day that he spent with them. He
came in the evening after all the fowls had gone to roost, and their
four-legged friends were dozing comfortably in meadow and pasture
corners, so nobody saw him until the next morning.

You can imagine how surprised they were when a beautiful great fowl of
greenish-blue strutted across the yard, holding his head well in the air
and dragging his splendid train behind him. The fowls were just starting
out for their daily walks, and they stopped and held one foot in the
air, and stared and stared and stared. They did not mean to be rude,
but they were so very much surprised that they did not think what they
were doing. Most of them thought they were asleep and dreaming, and the
dream was such a beautiful one that they did not want to move and break
it off. They had never seen a Peacock and did not even know that there
was such a fowl.

A Lamb by the pasture fence called to his mother. "Ba-baa!" cried he.
"One of the cloud-birds is walking in the farmyard." He