hteyes with the other, as much as
to say "What do you think of that? it's nothing to what I can do if I
try!" but Brighteyes burst out laughing, and said "Chook-a-raw-che-raw!
I can say that too, Mr. Rooster, so you need not be so proud."

At this the rooster was deeply offended, and withdrew to a corner of the
yard, muttering to himself.

Presently Brighteyes spied three fowls, two hens and an old rooster, who
apparently were too sleepy to care where they were, for they had all
gone to sleep, sitting side by side on a rail, and very funny they
looked.

"Oh!" said Brighteyes. "Don't they look just like the sixty-five parrots
asleep in a row, in the 'Four Little Children who went round the world?'
Don't you remember?" she went on, half to herself and half to the other
fowls, "the Pussy-Cat and the Quangle-Wangle crept softly, and bit off
the tail-feathers of all the sixty-five parrots; for which Violet
reproved them both severely. Notwithstanding which, she proceeded to
insert all the feathers--two-hundred and sixty in number--in her bonnet;
thereby causing it to have a lovely and glittering appearance,
highly--well, I forget the rest," said she, "for the words are very
long."

[Illustration]

"How pretty some of those tail-feathers would look in my hat!" she
continued. "I shouldn't like to bite them off, but I might pull some
out, for there are so many they would never be missed. Just a few out of
each tail, you know; and I am sure they wouldn't mind, if they knew it
was to make my hat have a lovely and glittering appearance. One good
smart pull, now--" and suiting the action to the word, she tugged with
might and main at the tail of the old rooster. But the old rooster had
apparently never read the story about Violet and the sixty-five parrots;
for instead of submitting meekly to having his tail-feathers pulled
out, he woke up in a great rage and fright, and uttering a tempest of
"ka-ka-kaaa-ka-raws" he flew directly in Brighteye's face.

[Illustration]

Greatly terrified, Brighteyes staggered backward, and sat down violently
in a tub filled with hay.

Yes, that would have been very well, if there had been nothing beside
hay in it. But, unfortunately, Uncle Jack had bought with these fowls
some eggs of a peculiar kind, from which he hoped to get a very fine
brood of chickens; and he had made a fine nest for them in this tub and
left them till one of the hens should take a fancy to them.

Well, that was all