THE BRAGGING PEACOCK
The farmyard people will never forget the coming of the Peacock; orrather they will never forget the first day that he spent with them. Hecame in the evening after all the fowls had gone to roost, and theirfour-legged friends were dozing comfortably in meadow and pasturecorners, so nobody saw him until the next morning.
You can imagine how surprised they were when a beautiful great fowl ofgreenish-blue strutted across the yard, holding his head well in the airand dragging his splendid train behind him. The fowls were just startingout for their daily walks, and they stopped and held one foot in theair, and stared and stared and stared. They did not mean to be rude,but they were so very much surprised that they did not think what theywere doing. Most of them thought they were asleep and dreaming, and thedream was such a beautiful one that they did not want to move and breakit off. They had never seen a Peacock and did not even know that therewas such a fowl.
A Lamb by the pasture fence called to his mother. "Ba-baa!" cried he."One of the cloud-birds is walking in the farmyard." He was thinking ofthe night of the storm, when all the Sheep and Lambs huddled together inthe meadow and watched the clouds, and thought that they were birds anddropped shining worms from their beaks.
Then the Peacock, who understood the Sheep language perfectly, said,"Paon! I am no cloud-bird. I am a Peacock." He said this in a veryhaughty way, as though to be a Peacock were the grandest thing in theworld, far better than having one's home in the sky and bringing showersto refresh the thirsty earth-people.
The Turkey Gobbler never could stand it to have others speak in that waywhen he was around, so he thought he would show the newcomer howimportant he was. He drew up his neck and puffed out his chest; hepulled his skin muscles by thinking about them, and that made hisfeathers stand on end; next he dropped his wings until their tipstouched the ground; then he slowly spread his tail. "Pffff!" said he. "Iam no Peacock. I am a Turkey Gobbler."
The Hen Turkeys looked at each other with much pride. They were a littleafraid of him themselves, but they liked to have him show the newcomerthat Turkeys are important people. Their children looked at each otherand murmured, "Isn't the Gobbler fine though? Guess the Peacock willwish now that he hadn't put on airs."
But the Peacock did not seem to feel at all sorry. He stood and lookedat them all without saying a word, and they all wondered what he wasthinking. Then a Duckling who stood near him exclaimed, "Look at histrain! Oh, look at his train!" Everybody looked and saw all thosebeautiful long feathers rising into the air. Up and up they went, andspreading as they rose, until there was a wonderful great circle of themback of his body and reaching far above his head. The Gobbler's spreadtail looked as small beside this as a Dove's egg would beside that of aGoose.
"Paon!" said the Peacock. "I am no Turkey Gobbler. I am a Peacock."
"Pffff!" said the Gobbler. Then he turned to the Hen Turkeys. "Mydears," he said, "I think it is time that we walked along. The childrenshould not be allowed to see and speak with any stray fowl that comesalong. We cannot be too particular about that." Then he stalked off,with the meek Hen Turkeys following and the children lagging behind.They did so want to stay and see the Peacock, and they thought theDucklings and Goslings were much luckier than they.
The Geese were delighted with the newcomer, and hoped he would be quitefriendly with them. They wished he were a swimmer, but of course theycould tell with one look that he was not. He did not have the trim,boat-shaped body that swimmers have, and then, his feet were not webbed.The Gander noticed that they were remarkably homely feet. He thought hewould remember this and speak of it to the Geese some time when theywere praising the Peacock's train.
The Drake was the first to speak politely to the Peacock. "We are gladto meet you, sir," he said. "Will you be with us long?"
"Thank you," answered the Peacock. "I have come to stay."
"We hope you will like it here. I'm sorry to see you do not swim. Weshould be very glad of your company if you did. You will excuse us if wego on to the brook. We are late already." He and all of his familywaddled away to the water. "A fine-looking fellow," said he heartily."Even my cousins, the Mallard Ducks, have not such a beautiful sheen ontheir neck feathers." The Drake was a kind, warm-hearted fellow, and itnever troubled him to know that other people were handsomer than he.
The Geese were eager to reach the water, too, but they could not leavewithout asking one question. First they told the Gander to ask it, buthe replied that if they wanted to know, they should ask it forthemselves. Then they hung back and said to each other, "You ask him. Ican't." At last the Gray Goose stepped forward, saying, "Excuse us,sir. You said that you were to stay with us, and we wish to know if youwork for your living."
"I work!" cried he. "Paon! Never. The farmer invited me here to bebeautiful, that is all."
"We are so glad," cackled the Geese, and the Gander joined with them."So many of the people here work. They are very good, but not at allgenteel, you understand."
"And don't you do anything?" asked the Peacock. "I thought Geese grewfeathers for beds and pillows. It seems to me you look rather ragged.Haven't you been plucked?"
This was very embarrassing to the Geese. "Why, yes," they said, "we dolet the farmer's wife have some feathers once in a while, when theweather is warm, but that is very different from really working, youknow."
"Perhaps," said the Peacock. "If they want any of my feathers, they canwait until I moult. Then you will see how much they think of me, forwhenever they find one of my train feathers (not tail, if you please;every bird has a tail, but I have a train) they carry it carefully intothe house to be made into a duster for the parlor. I never give away anybut my cast-off plumage. I am so very, very beautiful that I do not haveto work."
This impressed the Geese very much. "We are glad to know you. Quitehonored, we assure you!"
The Peacock bowed his crested head, and they bowed their uncrested andvery silly ones, and then they went to the river. The Peacock thoughtthem most agreeable, because they admired him, and they thought him thebest sort of acquaintance, because he didn't work. It was all veryfoolish, but there are always foolish people in the world, you know, andit is much better to be amused by it and a little sorry for them, thanfor us to lose our tempers and become cross about it. That was the waythe Shanghais, Black Spanish, Dorking, and Bantam fowls felt. They werepolite enough to the newcomer, but they did not run after him. TheChickens used to laugh when the Peacock uttered his cry of "Paon! Paon!"His voice was harsh and disagreeable, and it did seem so funny to hearsuch dreadful sounds coming from such a lovely throat.
The Black Spanish Cock reproved the Chickens sharply for this. "It isvery rude," said he, "to laugh at people for things they cannot help.How would you like to have a Lamb follow you around and bleat, 'Look atthat Chicken! He has only two legs! Hello, little two-legs; how can youwalk?' It is just as bad for you to laugh at his harsh voice, because hecannot help it. If he should say foolish and silly things, you mightlaugh, because he could help that if he tried. Don't ever again let mehear you laughing when he is just saying 'Paon.'"
The Chickens minded the Black Spanish Cock, for they knew he was rightand that he did not do rude things himself. They remembered everythinghe said, too.
One day the Peacock was standing on the fence alone. He did this most ofthe time. He usually stood with his back to the farmyard, so that peoplewho passed could see his train but not his feet. A party of young fowlsof all families came along. Their mothers had let them go off bythemselves, and they stopped to look at the Peacock.
"I do think you have the most beautiful tail, sir," said a Duckling,giving her own little pointed one a sideways shake as she spoke.
"Please call it my train," said the Peacock. "It is beautiful and I amvery proud of it. Not every fowl can grow such a train as that."
THE PEACOCK WAS STANDING ON THE FENCE.]
"Oh, dear, no!" giggled a jolly little Bantam Chicken. "I'd grow one ina minute if I could."
This made all the other young fowls laugh, for they thought how funnythe little brown Bantam would look dragging around a great mass offeathers like that.
The Peacock did not even smile. He never understood a joke anyway. Hewas always so busy thinking about himself that he couldn't see thepoint. Now he cleared his throat and spoke to the Bantam Chicken.
"I hope you don't think that I grew my train in a minute," said he. "Ittook me a long, long time, although I kept all the feathers going atonce."
"Look at his crest!" exclaimed one young Turkey in his piping voice.
The Peacock turned his head so that they could see it more plainly."That is a crest to be proud of," he said. "I have never seen a finerone myself. Have you noticed the beauty of my neck?"
"Charming!" "Wonderful!" "Beautiful!" exclaimed the young fowls. Justthen one of the spoiled Dove children flew down from the barn roof andsat beside the Peacock.
"What homely feet you have!" this Squab exclaimed. "Are you notdreadfully ashamed of them?"
The young fowls thought this rude. Not one of them would have said it.The Peacock became very angry. "I know my feet are not so handsome asthey might be," he said, "but that is no reason why I should be ashamedof them. I couldn't help having that kind of feet. They run in myfamily. I don't feel ashamed of things I can't help."
The young fowls felt so uncomfortable after this that they walked away,and the Squab flew back to the Dove-cote. For a time nobody spoke. Thena Gosling, who had heard her mother talk about the Peacock, said, "Ishould think he would be proud of his train, and his crest, and hisneck, and--and everything!"
"Everything except his feet," giggled the Bantam Chicken, "and you knowhe couldn't help having them."
"I wonder if he could help having his train, and his crest, and hisneck, and--and everything?" said a young Turkey.
They all stopped where they were. "We never thought of that!" theycried. "We never thought of that!"
"Let's go and ask the Blind Horse," said a Duckling. "He is a goodfriend of mine, and he knows almost everything."
They stalked and waddled over to the Blind Horse, and the Duckling toldhim what was puzzling them. The Blind Horse laughed very heartily. "Sothe Peacock is proud of having grown such a fine train and crest, but heisn't ashamed of his homely feet, because he couldn't help havingthose! There is no reason for either pride or shame with the Peacock. Hehas just such a body as was given him, and he couldn't make one feathergrow differently if he tried."
"I don't see what anybody can be proud of, then," said a Gosling sadly;for, you see, she wanted to be proud of something.
"Be proud of what you have done yourself," said the Blind Horse gently."Be proud of keeping clean, or of telling the truth, or of speakingpleasantly when things go wrong. There are plenty of chances to be proudin a good way, if one must be proud."
Among the Farmyard People Page 19
