ute.

[Illustration]

The Yellow Hen

[Illustration]

A strange noise awoke Dorothy, who opened her eyes to find that day had
dawned and the sun was shining brightly in a clear sky. She had been
dreaming that she was back in Kansas again, and playing in the old
barn-yard with the calves and pigs and chickens all around her; and at
first, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she really imagined she
was there.

"Kut-kut-kut, ka-daw-kut! Kut-kut-kut, ka-daw-kut!"

Ah; here again was the strange noise that had awakened her. Surely it
was a hen cackling! But her wide-open eyes first saw, through the slats
of the coop, the blue waves of the ocean, now calm and placid, and her
thoughts flew back to the past night, so full of danger and discomfort.
Also she began to remember that she was a waif of the storm, adrift upon
a treacherous and unknown sea.

"Kut-kut-kut, ka-daw-w-w--kut!"

"What's that?" cried Dorothy, starting to her feet.

"Why, I've just laid an egg, that's all," replied a small, but sharp and
distinct voice, and looking around her the little girl discovered a
yellow hen squatting in the opposite corner of the coop.

"Dear me!" she exclaimed, in surprise; "have _you_ been here all night,
too?"

"Of course," answered the hen, fluttering her wings and yawning. "When
the coop blew away from the ship I clung fast to this corner, with claws
and beak, for I knew if I fell into the water I'd surely be drowned.
Indeed, I nearly drowned, as it was, with all that water washing over
me. I never was so wet before in my life!"

"Yes," agreed Dorothy, "it was pretty wet, for a time, I know. But do
you feel comfor'ble now?"

"Not very. The sun has helped to dry my feathers, as it has your dress,
and I feel better since I laid my morning egg. But what's to become of
us, I should like to know, afloat on this big pond?"

"I'd like to know that, too," said Dorothy. "But, tell me; how does it
happen that you are able to talk? I thought hens could only cluck and
cackle."

"Why, as for that," answered the yellow hen thoughtfully, "I've clucked
and cackled all my life, and never spoken a word before this morning,
that I can remember. But when you asked a question, a minute ago, it
seemed the most natural thing in the world to answer you. So I spoke,
and I seem to keep on speaking, just as you and other human beings do.
Strange, isn't it?"

"Very," replied Dorothy. "If we were in the Land of Oz, I wouldn't