Chapter 1: 1. The Little Lost Hen
One afternoon, when Harry was coming home from school, he saw a little red hen. That doesn't sound very surprising, but when I tell you that the hen was just about to cross the road in the busy street, all by itself, you will see why Harry was rather astonished.
"Goodness!" said Harry, in surprise. "What is that hen doing in the middle of the town all by itself? It will get run over if it tries to cross this busy street. It must have escaped from somewhere and got lost."
A car hooted at the hen and it ran back. to the curb, fluttering its red feathers and squawking loudly. Harry was worried.What was he to do? You couldn't tell a hen to go home, as you could tell a dog.
"There's nothing to be done but to pick up the hen and take it home with me," thought Harry. "I can put it into my nursery until I know who the owner is."
Now Harry wasn't very good at picking up birds. Some people love picking up anything and don't mind touching worms or spiders. It is good to be like that, but Harry wasn't. He shivered when he tried to pick up the hen. He didn't like it at all.
The hen was so frightened that she let herself be picked up without struggling a bit. Harry managed to get her under his left arm and held her there with his right hand. She tried to peck him and he nearly dropped her. But he just managed to hold on, and off he went home, with the hen under his arm.
When he got home he called for his mother, but she was out. Jane, the daily help, was in the garden hanging out some tea cloths. So Harry went into the house by himself, carrying the little lost hen.
He went to his room and looked around. Where could he put the hen to make her comfortable? He saw his barrow there, and he carefully put the hen into it.
But she was out at once and ran clucking all around the room in a great way because she didn't know where she was.
"Oh, Hen, don't be so silly," said Harry. "Are you hungry? Stop pecking at my soldiers, please!"
Harry went out and shut the door. He went to the cupboard where Mother kept the seed for her pigeons and got a handful from a bag. Then back he went to his room.
"Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk!" said the hen,
running to Harry. "Kuk-Kuk," answered the boy, and threw a handful of seed on the carpet. The henpecked it up greedily. Then she cocked her bright-eyed head on one side and looked at Harry.
"Kuk-Kuk-Kuk!" she said in a very kindly tone. Harry didn't understand what she said, but what she meant was that she thought he was a very kind little boy. She began to peck up the rest of the seed.
Then Harry heard his mother's voice and he flew downstairs to tell her about the little lost hen. But Mother had a visitor with her, and Harry had to be quiet and not say a word except how-do you-do. Mother wouldn't let him talk when visitors were there, unless he was spoken to.
But after a while, Mother heard a peculiar noise from Harry's room, and she frowned.
"I wonder what that funny noise
upstairs is," she said. "It's very odd!" Everybody listened and they could hear the hen clucking loudly. Then suddenly she cackled at the top of her voice!
"Cackle-cackle-cackle, cluck, cluck,
cluck!"
"It sounds like a hen!" said Mother in astonishment. "Well, I never!"
"It is a hen!" said Harry, and he told his mother all about the little hen he had found trying to cross the street.
"Harry! Do you really mean to say that you put the hen in your room!" said
Mother: "Oh, whatever will you do next!" "It must be Mrs. White's hen," said the visitor, Miss Brown. "She told me this morning that her favorite red hen had escaped, and she didn't know where it had gone!"
"Oh, then, do you mind taking it back to her?" cried Harry. "The poor little hen feels so strange in my room. It would be so pleasing to go back home again to all its friends.
"Of course, I will," said Miss Brown, and they all went upstairs. There was the hen, scratching at the carpet, and clucking softly to itself. It ran to Harry and pecked at a freckle on his legs. Miss
Brown picked it up. "Would you like a basket to take it home in?" asked Harry's mother.
"Oh no. I like the nice soft warm feeling of a hen," said Miss Brown, cuddling the little red hen to her. "My word, won't Mrs. White be pleased when she sees me walking in with her lost hen! It is her very favorite one, and lays her a big brown egg every day."
"I love brown eggs," said Harry. "They taste much nicer than white ones. I wish I had a hen that laid me brown eggs.'
"We haven't room in our garden to keep hens," said Mother. "Well, goodbye, Miss Brown, and I do hope the hen will behave itself and not try to get out of your arms!"
Miss Brown and the hen went away. Harry felt quite lonely without the little red hen in his room. He wandered around by himself, wondering what to play with. He thought he would play with the soldiers in his toy fort.
So he went over to the fort-but before he could pick up any of his soldiers he saw something that made him stare and stare!
In the very middle of his toy fort was a big brown egg! Yes-there it lay among the soldiers, big and brown and smooth. Harry gave a scream of joy and picked it up. It was warm-as warm as toast! "Mother! Mother! Come and look here!" yelled Harry. "Oh, quick do
come!"
Mother came rushing in - and when she saw the egg she laughed and laughed. "Well, really, Harry, this is the funniest thing I ever heard of! You find a hen and bring it to your room and feed it - and it lays an egg in your toy fort! I will ring up Mrs. White and tell her, and you can take the egg round to her in a basket."
So Mother rang up Mrs. White and told her. When she put down the telephone she turned to Harry.
"Mrs. White says that the hen must have meant the egg for you, Harry, in return for your kindness," said Mother. "She says you are to keep it and eat it for breakfast!"
"Oh, Mother! What a surprise! And I do so like brown eggs!" said Harry in delight. "How kind of the hen to think of me like that!"
So Harry had the brown egg for his breakfast, and he told me that it was the very nicest one he had ever had in his life. Wasn't he lucky?
THE END OF STORY NO.1
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