Among the Farmyard People

by Clara Dillingham Pierson

  THE CHICKEN WHO WOULDN'T EAT GRAVEL

  It was some time after the Dorking Hen had come off the nest with herlittle brood, that the mother of the Shanghai Chickens began to have somuch trouble.

  She had twelve as fine Chickens as you could find anywhere: tall,wide-awake youngsters with long and shapely legs and thick down andfeathers. She was very proud of them, as any Hen mother might well be,and often said to the Shanghai Cock, "Did you ever see so fine a family?Look at those twenty-four legs, all so long and straight, and not afeather on one of them." His eyes would shine and he would stretch hisneck with pride, but all he ever said to her was, "They will do verywell if they only behave as well as they look." He did not believe inpraising children to their faces, and he thought their mother spoiledthem.

  Perhaps he was right, for the little Shanghais soon found out that theywere good-looking, and they wanted everybody in the poultry-yard tonotice their legs. It was very foolish, of course, to be proud of suchthings, but when the other fowls said, "We should think you would becold without feathers on your legs," they answered, "Oh, we areShanghais, and our family never wear feathers there!" And that was true,just as it is true that the Dorkings have extra toes, and that the BlackSpanish fowls have white ears.

  The Shanghai mother was now roaming the fields with her brood, and therewas rich picking in the wheat-stubble. All the fowls were out of theyard now, and would not be shut up until cold weather. Early in themorning they would start out in parties of from six to a dozen, with aCock at the head of each. He chose the way in which they should go; hewatched the sky for Hawks, and if he saw one, gave a warning cry thatmade the Hens hurry to him. The Cocks are the lords of the poultry-yardand say how things shall be there; but when you see them leading the wayin the fields,--ah, then you know why all the fowls obey them.

  The farmyard people still tell of the day when a Hawk swooped down onone of the young Dorkings and would have carried him off if the BlackSpanish Cock had not jumped out, and pecked him and struck at him withhis spurs, and fought, until the Hawk was glad to hurry away. The Cocksare not only brave--they are polite, too, and when they find food theywill not eat it until they have called the Hens to come and share withthem.

  You can imagine what good times the Chickens had in the stubble-fields.They were so old now that their down was all covered with feathers, andsome of them wondered if they couldn't feel their spurs growing. Still,that was all nonsense, as a Bantam told them, because spurs do not startuntil the fowl is a year old. They had long been too large to cuddleunder their mother's feathers at night, and had taken their firstlessons in roosting before they went to the stubble-fields. They hadlearned to break up their own food, too, and that was a great help totheir mother. Fowls, you know, have no teeth, and no matter how big amouthful one takes he has to swallow it whole. The only way they canhelp themselves is to break the pieces apart with their feet or peckthem apart with their bills before eating them.

  The yellow grains of wheat that lay everywhere in the field were finefood, and should have made the little Shanghais as fat as the Grouse whosometimes stole out from the edge of the forest. Eleven of the broodwere quite plump, but one Chicken was still thin and lank. His motherwas very much worried about him and could not think what was the matter.She spoke of it to the Black Spanish Hen one day, but the Black SpanishHen had never raised a brood, and said she really didn't know any moreabout the care of Chickens than if she were a Dove. Then the anxiousmother went to the Shanghai Cock about it. He listened to all she saidand looked very knowing.

  "I don't think there is anything the matter," said he. "The Chick isgrowing fast, that is all. I remember how it was with me before I got mylong tail-feathers. I was very thin, yet see what a fine-looking fellowI am now." He was really a sight worth seeing as he towered above theother fowls, flapping his strong wings in the sunshine and crowing. Hisfeathers were beautiful, and the bright red of his comb and wattlesshowed that he was well. "Ah," thought the Shanghai Hen, "if my Chickencould only become such a fine-looking Cock!" And she didn't worry anymore all day.

  That night she and her brood roosted in the old apple-tree in the cornerof the orchard nearest the poultry-yard. She flew up with the olderfowls and fluttered and lurched and squawked and pushed on first onebranch and then another, while the Chickens were walking up a slantingboard that the farmer had placed against one of the lower branches. Italways takes fowls a long time to settle themselves for the night. Theychange places and push each other, and sometimes one sleepy Hen leansover too far and falls to the ground, and then has to begin all overagain.

  At first the Chickens had feared that they would tumble off as soon asthey were asleep, but they soon learned that their feet and the feet ofall other birds are made in such a way that they hang on tightly evenduring sleep. The weight of the bird's body above hooks the toes aroundthe branch, and there they stay until the bird wishes to unhook them.

  After a long time, all the fowls were asleep with their heads undertheir wings. The Sheep, Pigs, and Cows were dreaming, and even theHorses were quiet in their stalls. There was not a light to be seen inthe big white farmhouse, when the Dorking Cock crowed in his sleep. Thatawakened him and all the other fowls as well. Then the other Cockscrowed because he did and he crowed again because they did, and theycrowed again because he had crowed again, and the Chickens asked if itwere not almost morning, and their mothers told them not to talk but togo to sleep at once and make morning come more quickly.

  All of this took quite a while, and the Shanghai mother could not sleepagain. She could see her brood quite plainly in the moonlight, and oneof them was not plump like the rest. She roosted there and worried abouthim until suddenly (she could never tell how it happened) she seemed toknow just what was the matter.

  She flew down beside him and poked him under his wing. "Wake up," shesaid. "I want to ask you something. Do you eat gravel?"

  "No," he answered sleepily, "I don't like gravel."

  "Didn't I bring you up to eat it?" she asked sternly.

  "Yes, but I don't like it, and now that I am old enough to roost in atree I don't mean to eat any more. So!"

  Just imagine a Chicken talking to his mother in that way! His mother,who had laid the egg from which he was hatched; who had sat upon thenest through all the weary days and nights while he was growing insidehis shell; who had cuddled him under her soft feathers; who had taughthim all he knew, and would have fought any hawk to save him! She hadbegun to love him before he even knew that he was, and had lived for himand his brother and sisters ever since.

  The mother said nothing more to him then. She spent the rest of thenight watching the stars and the moon and the first rosy flush of theeastern sky which told that morning was near. Then she said to hernaughty Chicken, as he began to stir and cheep, "I shall never try tomake you eat gravel if you think you are too big to mind your mother. Ishall just tell you this, that you will never be strong unless you do. Ihave not told you why, because you never asked, and I supposed you woulddo as you ought without knowing the reason. You have no teeth, and youcannot chew the grain you eat before it is swallowed. You have a strongstomach, and if you eat gravel this stomach or gizzard will rub andpress the tiny stones against the grain until it is well broken up andready to make into fat and strength for your body."

  "But it doesn't taste good," he replied, "and I'd rather eat otherthings. I don't believe it matters, and I won't eat it anyway."

  The Shanghai Hen flew down from the tree and clucked to her Chickens.She would not waste time talking to him. Whenever he came near her thatday, he ate everything but gravel. He had his own way and yet he was nothappy. For some reason, nothing seemed to be any fun. Even lying underthe bushes on the sunshiny side was not comfortable, and when hewallowed in the dust with his brothers and sisters he didn't enjoy that.

  Things went on this way for a good many days, and at last he saw thathis shadow was only a small black spot on the ground, while hisbrothers and sisters had big fat shadows. He h
eard the Black SpanishCock call him a Bantam, and the Shanghai Cock say that he wouldn't liveuntil his spurs grew. One of the Dorking Chickens was talking to hersister, and he heard her say, "Imagine him at the head of a flock!" Thenshe laughed, a mean, cackling little laugh.

  That night, when the rest were asleep in the apple-tree, he walkedsoftly down the slanting board and ate gravel. The next morning he feltbetter than he had in a long time, so when there was nobody around heate some more. He didn't want anyone else to know that he had found outhis mistake. Every morning he looked at his shadow, and it grew fatterand fatter. Still he was not happy, and he knew it was because he hadnot told his patient old mother. He wanted to tell her, too. One day heheard her telling his brother to eat more gravel, and the brother saidhe didn't like the taste of it. That made him speak at last.

  "Suppose you don't like it, you can eat it. Queer world it would be ifwe didn't have to do unpleasant things. I've just made up my mind thatthe people who won't do hard things, when they ought to, have thehardest times in the end. Wish I'd minded my mother and eaten gravelwhen she told me to, and I'm not going to let you be as foolish as Iwas."

  Just then he heard somebody say of him, "What a fine-looking fellow heis growing to be! I like him ever so much now."

  It was the Dorking Chicken who had laughed at him. He ran after aGrasshopper, and she ran after the same Grasshopper, and they ranagainst each other and the Grasshopper got away, so of course they hadto wander off together to find something to eat, and after that theybecame great friends.

  The Shanghai Hen looked lovingly after him and raised one foot in theair. "Now," she said, "I am perfectly happy."