two
long tail-feathers in what he considered a more becoming droop.

"Good afternoon, madam!" he answered--for the Rooster prided himself that
he was always polite to the ladies. "Er--there's nothing wrong, I hope,"
he added quickly as he noticed an odd gleam in Henrietta Hen's eye.

"Yes--there is," she said. The cockerels might fear the Rooster, but
Henrietta certainly didn't. She considered him a good deal of a braggart.
Indeed, she even had an idea that she could have whipped him herself, had
she cared to be so unladylike as to fight. "I've been bothered for a long
time because you crow so early in the morning. You make such a racket
that you wake me up every day."

The Booster hemmed and hawed. Somehow he felt uncomfortable.

"That's unfortunate," he stammered. And then he had a happy thought.
"Anyhow," he continued, with a smile at Henrietta, "you don't look as if
you lacked for sleep, madam. You grow more beautiful every day."

Henrietta Hen admitted that it was so. "But," she said, "I believe I'd be
even handsomer if I weren't disturbed so early. I don't like to get up
while it's dark. So I'm going to ask you to delay your crowing, from now
on, until after sunrise."

"Impossible!" cried the Rooster. "I'm sorry to disoblige you, madam. But
what you ask can't be done."

"That's just what the cockerel said!" Henrietta Hen exclaimed.

"The cockerel!" the Rooster echoed angrily. "Which one? Has one of those
upstarts been talking about me? Point him out to me and I'll soon teach
him a lesson."

Henrietta Hen said that she hadn't noticed which cockerel it was. Somehow
they all looked alike to her.

"Good!" the Rooster cried. "Then I'll have to whip them all, to make sure
of punishing the guilty one." He looked very fierce.

"Don't be absurd!" Henrietta told him. "I asked one of the cockerels to
give you a message about not crowing so early. And he declined. He said
it wouldn't do any good."

"It wouldn't have done _him_ any good," the Rooster declared, stamping a
foot and thrusting his bill far forward, to show Henrietta Hen how brave
he was.

"What's the matter?" she inquired. "Have you eaten something that
disagrees with you?"

The Rooster couldn't help looking foolish. Henrietta Hen believed in
letting him know that she stood in no awe of him. And while he was
feeling ill at ease she hastened to tell him that hereafter he must _hold
onto_ his first crow until after sunrise.

"I can't do that," he