h she always repeated several times. For she wanted
everybody to know that Henrietta Hen had laid another of her famous eggs.

After such an event she always went about asking people if they had heard
the news--just as if they could have _helped_ hearing her silly racket!

Now, it sometimes happened, when she was on such an errand, that
Henrietta Hen met with snubs. Now and then her question--"Have you heard
the news?"--brought some such sallies as these: "Polly Plymouth Rock has
just laid an _enormous_ egg! Have you seen it?" Or maybe, "Don't be
disappointed, Henrietta! Somebody has to lay the littlest ones!"

Such jibes were certain to make Henrietta Hen lose her temper. And she
would talk very fast (and, alas! very loud, too) about jealous neighbors
and how unpleasant it was to live among folk that were so stingy of their
praise that they couldn't say a good word for the finest eggs that ever
were seen! On such occasions Henrietta Hen generally talked in a lofty
way about moving to the village to live.

"They think enough of my eggs down there," she would boast. "Boiled,
fried, poached, scrambled, or for an omelette--my eggs can't be beaten."

"If the villagers can't beat your eggs they certainly can't use them for
omelettes," Polly Plymouth Rock told Henrietta one day. "Everybody knows
you have to beat eggs to make an omelette."

Henrietta Hen didn't know what to say to that. It was almost the only
time she was ever known to be silent.

II

A FINE FAMILY

Henrietta Hen's neighbors paid little attention to her boasting, because
they had to listen to it so often. At last, however, there came a day
when she set up such a cackling as they had never heard from her before.
She kept calling out at the top of her lungs, "Come-come-come!
See-what-I've-got! Come-come-come! See-what-I've-got!" And she acted even
more important than ever, until her friends began to say to one another,
"What _can_ Henrietta be so proud about? If it's only another egg, she's
making a terrible fuss about it."

They decided at last that if they were to have any peace they'd better go
and look at whatever it was that Henrietta Hen was squawking about. So
they went--in a body--to the place where she had her nest, in the haymow.

When Henrietta caught sight of her visitors she set up a greater clamor
than ever.

"Well, well!" cried the oldest of the party, a rather sharp-tongued dame
with white feathers. "What's all this hubbub ab