od as you are?"

"No!" said Henrietta Hen. "No, I don't!"

Mr. Crow was all for arguing with her. He began to tell Henrietta many
things about himself, how he had spent dozens of summers in Pleasant
Valley, what a great traveller he was, how far he could fly in a day.
There was no end to his boasting.

Yet Henrietta Hen never looked the least bit interested. Indeed, she
began scratching for worms while he was talking. And that made the old
fellow angrier than ever.

"Don't you dare eat another kernel of corn!" he thundered. "If you do,
I'll have to tell Farmer Green."

"He feeds me corn every day--cracked corn!" said Henrietta.

"Well, I never!" cried Mr. Crow. "What's he thinking of, wasting good
corn like that?"

"Really, I mustn't be seen talking with you," Henrietta Hen told Mr.
Crow. "If you want to know the answer to your question, come over to the
barnyard and ask the Rooster. He'll give you an answer that you won't
like."

And then she walked away with stately steps.

Mr. Crow watched her with a baleful gleam in his eyes. He knew well
enough what Henrietta meant. The Rooster would rather fight him than not.
And though Mr. Crow loved a quarrel, he never cared to indulge in
anything more dangerous than harsh words.

"I don't know what the farm's coming to," he croaked. "Here's Farmer
Green wasting corn on such as her--and cracking it for her, too!"

So saying, the old gentleman turned his back on Henrietta Hen, who was
already fluttering through the farmyard fence. And thereupon he scratched
up enough corn for a hearty meal, grumbling meanwhile because it wasn't
cracked for him.

"Somehow," he muttered, "I can't help wishing I was a speckled hen."

VI

HENRIETTA COMPLAINS

There was another member of Farmer Green's flock, besides Henrietta Hen,
that was proud. Nobody needed to look twice at the Rooster to tell that
he had an excellent opinion of himself. He had a way of walking about the
farmyard that said quite plainly that he believed himself to be a person
of great importance. And it was true that things went according to his
ideas, among the flock.

He was always spoken of as "the Rooster." For although there were other
roosters in the flock, they were both younger and smaller than he, and he
would never permit anybody to call them--in his hearing--anything but
cockerels.

These cockerels usually took great pains to keep out of the Rooster's
way. If they were careless, and he cau