The Curly-Haired Hen | Page 5

into the room! Very
annoyed at this impertinent curiosity, she would leap upon the
importunate stranger and punish him terribly with her sharp beak. Of
course he would run off howling and frightened to death. It was very
funny to watch.
Mother Etienne and Germaine were much amused at these little
comedies, and whenever visitors came to the farm they would try to
provoke one. Everyone enjoyed them hugely.

Germaine treated Yollande like a doll. She made her all sorts of
fashionable clothes. The Cochin-China would be dressed sometimes
like a man, sometimes like a woman. She had made her quite a
collection of little trousers and vests, which had style, I can tell you.
She had copied, too, from a circus she had seen, an English clown's
costume which was most becoming. Nothing could be funnier than to
watch this tiny dwarf, to see her strut, jump, dance, coming and going,
skipping around suddenly,--one moment skittish, the next very
important.
Petit-Jacques loved to tease her, but not roughly; he would push her
with his foot, and make her jump at him impatiently, looking perfectly
ridiculous in her quaint dress. You could have sworn she was a
miniature clown. Add to all this, the queer inarticulate sounds she made
when she was angry, and even then you can have no idea how very
amusing these pantomimes were.
Soon the fame of Yollande spread far and wide. She became celebrated
throughout the district. Instead of asking Mother Etienne how she was,
people asked:
"How's your hen today, Mother Etienne?"
CHAPTER IV
FATHER GUSSON'S SECRET
One day a peddler, such as often come round to villages, laden like a
mule, and leading by the bridle an ass still more laden, appeared at the
farm. Both looked well but tired and dusty--they seemed to have had a
long journey.
Father Gusson, such was the good man's name, sold all sorts of things,
from tooth-brushes to shoes,--including hardware, glassware, notions,
drugs, and even patent medicines.
Mother Etienne received him kindly and after letting him show her the
things in which she was interested, she offered him refreshment and

suggested that he should take a little rest at the farm. This he accepted
without needing any pressing.
The donkey, relieved straightway from his load, was led into the
paddock, where he wallowed in the tall grass, rolling on his back, his
feet in the air. He enjoyed cleaning himself up like this after his dusty
journey, then, rested--he took his luncheon, choosing here and there the
daintiest morsels; after which he lay down and philosophised at length.
All this time, Mother Etienne and Germaine were buying, tempted by
one thing after another, silks, laces, stuffs for dresses, and a number of
toilet articles, for both were, though you would not have suspected it,
rather coquettish. Father Gusson--delighted with his visit to the farm
and the business he had done there--was anxious to leave Mother
Etienne a little remembrance.
[Illustration: Father Gusson the peddler comes to the farm.]
"Madame," he said, holding out a small china jar carefully sealed with
parchment, "assuredly you do not need this just now, but if I should
never come back, and if it should happen that one day your beautiful
hair should grow thin, turn grey, or fall out, you have only to rub your
head with this sweet-scented ointment and at once your hair will grow
again thick and of its original colour. I cannot, alas! give you the recipe,
it is a secret left me by my parents."
Then Father Gusson bade farewell to the two women and went on his
way with "Neddy," both much refreshed by their pleasant rest.
Mother Etienne handed Germaine the precious pot of ointment to put
with their other purchases into the big cupboard, and they thought no
more about it.
One day as she sat by the fire with Yollande, watching the dinner, a
bright and whimsical idea occurred to the maid. "Supposing I were to
try the ointment on the hen? But--it might be good for feathers
too--anyhow, it could not do any harm."

Saying this she went, found the ointment, and delicately rubbed a little
onto Yollande's head. Yollande did not appear to mind at all. Germaine
did this three days running.
Two weeks later Mother Etienne while dressing her hen, as she did
each day, found a thick reddish down sprouting round her head like a
little flat wig. She showed it to Germaine, who paid no attention,
having quite forgotten her childish trick.
But during the next few days the wig prospered; the hair was two
finger-breadths long, very thick and curly. Mother Etienne could not
understand it at all. Germaine could not, at first, make up her mind to
confess to her mistress what she had done.
At last