y dignified. She pecked at the cabbage in
an absent-minded fashion, pretending that it was no treat to her. As a
matter of fact, she had been trying to get a taste of cabbage for a long
while. And this was the first time she had managed to crawl through the
garden fence. "One has to eat something," she murmured.

Jimmy Rabbit smiled slyly. Henrietta Hen couldn't deceive him. He knew
that she was as fond of cabbage as he was himself.

"Did you ever hear it said," he asked her suddenly, "that eating too much
cabbage causes long ears?"

XIV

EARS--SHORT OR LONG

Henrietta Hen's heart began to thump. She dropped a bit of cabbage out of
her bill, letting it fall as if it burned her. And usually she was very
careful as to her table-manners. "Goodness!" she said to Jimmy Rabbit,
who was busily munching cabbage in Farmer Green's garden. "You frighten
me!"

He had just asked her this strange question: "Did you ever hear it said
that eating too much cabbage causes long ears?" And Henrietta Hen didn't
want long ears. She knew they would be sure to spoil her beauty.

Jimmy Rabbit had no time to say anything more to Henrietta Hen. Although
he had not finished his luncheon he left the garden suddenly--and in
great haste. For old dog Spot began barking just beyond the fence; and
Jimmy Rabbit always wanted to get as far from that sound as he could.

When Spot scurried into the cabbage-patch a little later Henrietta Hen
called to him.

"What is it?" he asked her impatiently. "I'm in a great hurry. I don't
like to stop."

"This is a very important matter," said Henrietta Hen. "Do you like
cabbage?" she demanded.

"Cabbage?" he repeated after her as a puzzled look came over his face.

"You needn't act so surprised," Henrietta told him coldly. "You didn't
come running into the garden for nothing. And I have reason to believe
that you intended to eat some of Farmer Green's cabbages."

"What's your reason?" old Spot inquired.

"You have long ears," said Henrietta.

"Nonsense!" cried Spot. "What a person eats doesn't make his ears either
long or short."

"Are you sure of that?" Henrietta Hen wanted to know.

"I've never eaten cabbage in all my life," he declared.

Still she couldn't rid herself of her fears.

"Perhaps," she said, "if you had eaten it your ears would have grown
twice as long as they are now."

He shook his head. "I don't think so," he muttered.

"There's only one way to find out," Henrietta a