The Tale of Henrietta Hen | Page 8

haymow in Farmer Green's barn. She could scarcely keep up with Henrietta Hen, whom she was following--by request. And when she arrived, breathless, at Henrietta's nest that proud and elegant creature turned a troubled face toward her.
"See!" said Henrietta. "I've taken your advice and laid another egg. But it's nothing like the beautiful, big, white one. This last egg is much smaller; and it's brown."
Old Whitey nodded her head. "Well!" she said. "What's your difficulty?"
"Don't you think," said Henrietta, "that if Johnnie Green finds my nest he'll be sure to take both eggs?"
"No, I don't," was old Whitey's blunt answer.
"Then he'll be sure to take the big, white one," Henrietta Hen wailed.
"No, he won't," old Whitey told her. "If he does, I'll miss my guess."
Well, that was really too much for Henrietta Hen to believe.
"That boy will never take a little egg and leave a big one," she declared.
"You wait and see if he doesn't," old Whitey advised her.
So Henrietta waited. Though she had little faith in old Whitey's advice, Henrietta could think of nothing else to do. And the next morning, to her great surprise, when Johnnie Green climbed into the haymow and found her nest he took the small brown egg and put it in his hat. And he never touched the big, white egg at all. He didn't even pick it up and look at it!
Perched on a beam overhead Henrietta Hen watched him breathlessly. And as soon as he had gone she went flopping down to the barn floor and set up a great clamor for old Whitey.
"What is it now?" old Whitey asked, sticking her head inside the doorway.
"Your guess was a good one!" cried Henrietta Hen. "He came; and he took the small one."
"There!" said old Whitey. "I told you so! I knew Johnnie Green wouldn't rob you of that big egg. And if you keep laying small eggs in that same nest you'll find he'll let you keep the big one."
Henrietta Hen fairly beamed at her companion.
"How delightful!" she exclaimed. "I've become very, very fond of that big egg. I love to look at it. But there's another thing that worries me now. If that big egg should get broken--"
"Don't let that trouble you!" said old Whitey.
"I'm almost afraid to sit on my nest," Henrietta Hen confessed. "If the shell of that egg should happen to be thin--"
Old Whitey seemed much amused by Henrietta's fears.
"Let me know if you break it," she said. And then she left Henrietta with her treasure.
"I'll be very careful," Henrietta called after the old dame.

XII
PLAYING TRICKS
Now, the hen known as old Whitey was something of a gossip. She went straight to the farmyard and told everybody what had happened--what Henrietta Hen had said to her and what she had said to Henrietta Hen. The whole flock had a great laugh over the affair.
To Henrietta Hen's delight, all her neighbors took a keen interest in the wonderful white egg. They asked her countless questions about it. Above all, they always took pains to inquire whether she had been so unlucky as to crack the shell. And if Henrietta hadn't displeased Polly Plymouth Rock one day, the truth might never have come out.
Anyhow, Polly Plymouth Rock told Henrietta Hen that if she had any sense she would stop making such a fuss over a china egg.
"China egg!" cried Henrietta. "I don't know what you mean."
"That's not a real egg that you're so proud of," Polly Plymouth Rock declared. "It's nothing but a make-believe one. Johnnie Green left it in your nest to fool you, so you'd keep that nest and lay eggs in it, right along.... You're so careful not to break that china egg! Why, if you tried to break it you'd find that it's solid as a rock."
Henrietta Hen couldn't believe the terrible news.
"I laid that egg myself!" she shrieked.
"You think you did; but you didn't," Polly Plymouth Rock snapped. "Johnnie Green took an egg of yours one day and left that other one in its place, to deceive you. And everybody on the farm--except you--knows that he succeeded."
Henrietta Hen didn't wait to hear anything more. She rushed squalling into the barn and went straight to her nest. One good, hard peck at the big white egg told her beyond all doubt that she had been betrayed. The beautiful, big, white egg wasn't an egg after all!
Now that Henrietta Hen knew it she wondered how it could ever have deceived her. She saw that it was shiny and altogether unlike any egg she had ever seen anywhere.
"Johnnie Green has played a mean trick on me," Henrietta Hen cackled. "And now I'll play one on him! He can have his old china egg. I'll leave it here for him. But he'll find none of my beautiful little brown eggs