What a hot, drowsy afternoon it was.
The blazing sun shone with such a glare upon the farmyard that it wasalmost unbearable, and there was not a vestige of grass or any greenthing to relieve the eye or cast a little shade.
But the fowls in the back yard were not disturbed by the heat the leastbit in the world, for they had plenty of time in which to doze, and theywere fond of taking a _siesta_ in the hottest place that could be found.Certainly the hottest place that afternoon, by far, was the yard inwhich they reposed.
There were five of them--a cock and four hens. Two of the hens wererenowned throughout the whole village, for they wore tufts of featherson their heads instead of the usual red combs; and the cock was veryproud of having such distinguished-looking wives.
Besides which, he was naturally a very stately bird himself inappearance, and had a splendid blackish-green tail and a golden speckledhackle, which shone and glistened in the sun. He had also won many sharpbattles with certain young cocks in the neighbourhood, whom curiosityabout the tufted foreigners had attracted to the yard. The consequenceof these triumphs was that he held undisputed dominion as far as thesecond fence from the farmyard, and whenever he shut his eyes andsounded his war-clarion, the whole of his rivals made off as fast aswings and legs could carry them.
So the five sat or stood by themselves in the yard, dozing in thesunshine, and they felt bored.
During the middle of the day they had managed to get some winks ofsleep, but now the farmer's men began to thresh in a barn close by,making noise enough to wake the dead, so there was small chance ofwell-organized fowls being able to sleep through the din.
"I wish some one would tell a story," said one of the common hens, asshe ruffled all her feathers up on end, and then shook them straightagain, for coolness. "I am tired of scrabbling in the dust, andfly-catching is an amusement only suited to sparrows and such vulgarbirds."
This was a hit at one of the foreign hens, who had wandered away alittle and was pecking at flies on the wall. The two common hens werevery fond of vexing the foreign ones, for their feelings were hurt atbeing reckoned less beautiful and rare.
The tufted fair one heard the remark, and called out spitefully from adistance: "If certain people were not ignorant country bumpkins, theywould be able to tell a good story themselves."
"That remark can't apply to me, for I know a great number of stories,"replied the common hen, turning her head on one side to show hercontempt. "For instance: once upon a time there was a hen who laidnothing but soft-shelled eggs--"
"You can't mean _me_ by that story," said the tufted one, "for I haveonly laid one soft-shelled egg in my whole life. So there! But do tellme how your interesting story ends--I am so anxious to hear the end."
"You know that best yourself," retorted the other.
"Now I'm sure, dear Father Cock, you could tell us something reallyamusing if you would be so kind," said the second common hen, who wasstanding near him. "Those two make one's life a burthen, with theireverlasting wrangling and bickering."
"Hush!" said the cock, who was standing motionless with one leg in theair, an attitude he often assumed when any very hard thinking had to bedone; "I was just trying to recollect one."
After a pause, he said in a solemn voice: "I will tell you the terribletale of the troubles of 'The Hens of Hencastle.'
"Once upon a time--it was the village fair week, when, as you know,every one eats and drinks as much as he possibly can, and consequently agreat many animals are killed,--the farmer's cook came into thefowlyard, and after carefully looking over all the chickens, remarkedthat seven of them would be twisting merrily on the spit next morning.On hearing this, all the fowls were plunged into the deepest despair,for no one felt sure that he would not be of the seven, and no one couldguess how the victims would be chosen. Two young cockerels, in theirdeep perplexity, at last went to the yard-dog, Flaps by name, who was avery great friend of theirs, and to him they cackled out their woes.
"'Why do you stop here?' asked Flaps. 'If you had any pluck at all youwould run away.'
"'Ah! Perhaps so--but who has enough courage for such a desperate step?'sighed the young cockerels. 'Why, you yourself are no more courageousthan we, else why do you stop here chained up all day, and allow thosetiresome children to come and tease you?'
"'Well,' replied the dog, 'I earn a good livelihood by putting up withthese small discomforts, and besides that, _I_ am not going to be settwisting on a spit. However, if you particularly wish it, we can goaway somewhere together; but if we do, I may as well tell you at once,that you will have to feed me.'
"The cockerels, fired by this bold advice, betook themselves at once tothe henroost with the courage of young lions; and after a short butanimated discussion, persuaded the whole of the cocks and hens to runaway and to take Flaps as protector of the community.
"When darkness fell, the dog was unchained for the night as usual, andas soon as the coast seemed clear, he went to the henhouse, pushed backthe sliding door with his nose, and let them all out.
"Then he and the whole company stole away as quietly as possible throughthe yard-gate, away out into the open country.
"The fowls flew and wandered on, the livelong night, perfectly happy intheir freedom, and feeding themselves from the sheaves of corn thatstood in the stubble-fields.
"Whenever Flaps felt hungry, the hens laid him a couple of eggs or sowhich he found far nicer than barley-meal and dog-biscuit.
"When they passed through thinly-populated places where they were notlikely to be observed, they marched gaily forward; but whenever therewas a chance of danger, they only travelled by night.
"Meanwhile the cook went early in the morning to kill the chickens; buton finding the whole place as empty as Mother Hubbard's cupboard, shefell into a violent fit of hysterics, and the kitchen-maid and pig-boyhad to put her under the pump, and work it hard for a quarter of an hourbefore they could revive her.
"After some days' journeying, the wanderers arrived at a largedesolate-looking heath, in the middle of which stood an oldweather-beaten house, apparently uninhabited. Flaps was sent forward toexamine it, and he searched from garret to cellar without finding atrace of a human being. The fowls then examined the neighbourhood fortwo whole days and nights with a like result, and so they determined totake up their abode in the dwelling.
"In they trooped, and set themselves to work to turn it into a strongcastle, well fortified against all danger. They stopped up the holes andcracks with tufts of grass, and piled a wall of big and little stonesright round the house. When the repairs were completed they called itHencastle.
"During the autumn some of the fowls ventured forth into the cornfieldsthat lay near the haunts of men, and collected a store of grain tosupply them with food during the winter. They kept it on the floor of aloft, and when spring came they sowed the remainder of the stock in afield, where it produced such an abundant crop that they had plenty ofprovisions for the following winter.
"Thus they lived a peaceful and happy life, which was so uneventful thatit has no history; and Mark, the watchman, who always stood on thecoping-stone of the highest chimney to act as sentinel, used constantlyto fall asleep, partly from sheer boredom, and partly from the combinedeffects of old age, good living, and having nothing on earth to do.Flaps, too, who had undertaken to guard the castle against intruders,and who at first used to patrol the house carefully inside and out everynight, soon came to the conclusion that the game was not worth thecandle.
"One chilly evening, about the time of the first snows, when the windwas beginning to whistle over the heath and make strange noises in thecastle, two old hens were up in the loft having a chat and picking up afew stray grains of corn for supper. All of a sudden they heard amysterious 'Piep.' 'Hollo!' said one, 'what's that? no one can behatching out at this time of the year--it's impossible; yet surelysomething said "Piep" down there in the corner.'
"Just then another 'Piep' was heard.
"'I don't think it
sounds _quite_ like a young chicken,' replied theother hen.
"In the middle of their discussion on this knotty point, they descrieda couple of mice at the edge of the corn-heap. One of them was sittingon his hind-legs, washing his ears and whiskers with his fore-paws, buthis wife was gobbling up corn at a rapid rate, and in this sight thewise and far-seeing old hens discerned the probability of futuretroubles.
"'Hollo there! that's our corn,' they cried; 'you mustn't steal it. Ofcourse you may have a few grains in the depth of winter to keep you fromstarving; but remember, when spring comes again, this sort of thing muststop, and you must go away and never come here any more.'
"'Piep,' said the mice, and vanished.
"The two hens told the rest what had happened, but nobody troubledthemselves about such an insignificant matter, and some said that thepoor old things made mountains out of molehills. Anyhow, in two dayseverybody, including the wise hens themselves, had forgotten all aboutit. Later on, that winter, the mice had seven young ones--seven suchskinny, thread-limbed, beady-eyed little beasts that no one noticedtheir arrival.
"Very soon after, almost before any hen had time to look round or think,behold! mice were squeaking in every corner, and there were holes behindevery wainscot, plank, and rafter.
"A year passed away, and when winter returned again the mice came andtook the stored corn away in such quantities that everybody saw nonewould be left to sow in the spring.
"Matters had come to a crisis; many and anxious discussions were heldamongst the fowls, for good counsel was a thing much sought after atHencastle.
"At first they took very energetic measures, and many a mouse fell avictim to a well-aimed peck from a cock's beak; but alas! the mice tookenergetic measures also, and resisted to the death, so that many afowl's leg was bitten to the bone. Much had been said, and much wasdone, but the mice were more numerous than before.
"The commonwealth then decided on sending three experienced cocks outinto the world, to try and find some means for getting rid of the plagueof mice.
"The cocks journeyed for one whole day without finding anything to helpthem in their trouble, but towards evening they came to a wild, rockymountainside, full of caves and clefts, and made up their minds to staythere for the night; so they crept into a hole under a ledge of rock,put their heads under their wings, and went to sleep.
"In the middle of the night they were roused by the sound of flappingwings, followed by a whispering voice, saying, 'whish--ish,' which soonbroke out into a loud 'Whoo--hoo! whoo--hoo!' They popped their headsout of the hole to see what was the matter, and they perceived a greatowl sitting on a stump, flapping its wings up and down, and rolling itsgreat round eyes about, which glared like red-hot coals in its head.
"'Mice here! Mice here! Whoo--hoo!' it shrieked.
"On hearing this the cocks nudged one another, and said, 'We are inluck's way at last.' Then as the owl still continued to call for mice,one of them plucked up courage and addressed it: 'If you will only comewith us, sir, you shall have as many mice as you can eat--a wholehouse-full, if you like.'
"'Who may you be?' hissed the owl, and glared with its fiery eyes intothe cleft.
"'We come from Hencastle, where there are hundreds of mice, who devourour corn day and night.
"'Whoo--hoo! I'll come, I'll come,' screamed the owl, snapping its beakwith pleasure.
"In the grey of the dawn the fowls sat on the roof-tree, listening toMark, the watchman, who stood on the top of, his chimney, and cried,
"'What do I see? Here come the three! And with them, I reckon, A bird with no neck on.'
"Thereupon the owl and the three messengers flew up with a rush to thetop of the castle.
"'Ha! ha! I smell mice,' shrieked the new comer, and dashed through ahole in the roof, from whence it shortly reappeared with a mouse in itsclaws.
"This sight filled all the fowls with joy; and as they sat on the edgeof the roof in a row, they nudged each other, and remarked,
"'This has indeed been a happy venture.'
"For a few days everything went as smoothly as possible, but after atime the mice began to find out that the owl could only see really wellat night, that it saw badly by day, and hardly at all when the middaysun was shining through the window into the loft. So they only came outat noon, and then dragged enough corn away into their holes to last themtill the following day.
"One night the owl did not catch a single mouse, and so, being veryhungry, drove its beak into some hen's eggs that lay in a corner, andate them. Finding them more to its taste than the fattest mouse, andmuch less trouble to catch, henceforth the owl gave up mouse-hunting,and took to egg-poaching. This the fowls presently discovered, and thethree wise cocks were sent to tell the owl to go away, as it was nolonger of use to anybody, for it never caught mice but only ate eggs.
"'Whoo--hoo! whoo--hoo! More eggs--give me more eggs, or I'll scratchyour eyes out,' shrieked the owl, and began to whet its beak on a beamin such a savage manner that the three cocks fled in terror to the topof the chimney.
"Having somewhat recovered from their alarm, they went down and toldFlaps, who was basking in the sunshine, that the owl must be got rid of.
"'What, are all the mice eaten, then?' inquired he.
"'Alas!' answered one of the cocks, 'the brute will eat nothing but eggsnow, and threatens to scratch our eyes out if we don't supply as manymore as it wants.'
"'Wait till noonday,' said the dog, 'and I'll soon bring the rascal toreason.'
"At twelve o'clock Flaps quietly pushed the door open and went up intothe loft. There sat the old owl winking and blinking in a corner.
"'So you are the robber who is going to scratch people's eyes out,' saidFlaps. 'For this you must die!'
"'That remains to be seen,' sneered the owl; 'but eyes I will have, anddogs' eyes too!' and with that it swooped down upon Flaps' head; but theold dog seized the bird between his teeth and killed it, though notbefore one of his own eyes had been scratched out in the struggle.
"'No matter,' said Flaps; 'I've done my duty, at any rate, and I don'tknow why I should want more than one eye to see with;' and so saying, hewent back to his post.
"The fowls made a great feast, which lasted the whole day, to celebratethe owl's death.
"But the mice remained in the castle, and continued to increase andmultiply. So the three wise cocks had to go forth on a second voyage ofdiscovery, in order to try and find a remedy against the intruders.
"They flew on for a night and a day without any result; but towardsmorning, on the second day, they alighted to rest in a thick wood, andthere, in one of the forest glades, just as the sun was rising, they sawa red-coated animal watching a mouse-hole. It was a fox, who had comeout to find something for breakfast. They soon saw him catch a mouse andeat it, and then heard him say, 'Heaven be praised for small mercies! Ihave managed to secure a light breakfast at last, though I've beenhunting all night in vain.'
"'Do you hear that?' said one of the messengers. 'He considers himselfvery lucky to have caught a single mouse. That's the sort of animal wewant.'
"So the cock called down from the tree--'I say! below there! Mr.Mouse-eater! you can have a whole loft-full of such long-tailed verminas that, if you will come with us. But you must first solemnly swearthat you will never eat eggs instead of mice.'
"'Nothing on earth shall ever tempt me to touch an egg. I swear it mostsolemnly,' said the fox, staring up into the tree. 'But whence do youcome, my worthy masters?'
"'We live at Hencastle, but no one knows where that is except the mice,who eat us out of house and home.'
"'You don't say so,' said the fox from below, licking his lips. 'And arethere many more such handsome, magnificent birds as you are, atHencastle?'
"'Why, of course, the whole place is full of them.'
"'Then I'll come with you,' said the fox, lowering his eyes, lest thecocks should discern the hungry look in them. 'And if there are athousand mice in the loft, they shall all soon lick
the dust. Ah! youdon't know what delicious dainties such--mice--are.'
"This time the fowls had to wait till evening before they heard Mark,the watchman, crowing from his chimney, and calling forth,
"'Here come the three! But what do I see? Why, the friend that they bring Is a four-legged thing.'
"When the fox got to the outer wall, he sniffed about uneasily andsaid,
"'I smell a dog, and I am not fond of the race, nor do they as a rulelike me.'
"'You need not be alarmed,' replied the cocks; 'there is only one ofthem here--our friend Mr. Flaps,--and he is always stationed outside thecastle; besides, he is just as glad as we are that you have come to killthe mice.'
"But in spite of this assurance, the fox did not at all like the idea ofgoing in past Flaps, who stood at the door, showing his teeth, and withthe hair down his back standing on end; but at last, catching sight of anumber of plump young chickens looking out at a window, Reynard couldresist no longer, and with his mouth watering in anxiety to be amongthem, he slipped past Flaps like lightning, and scampered up into theloft. Once there, he behaved so affably to the fowls, and especially tosome of the oldest and most influential hens, that very soon every onelooked on him as their friend in time of need, and their enthusiasm wasbrought to a climax when they saw him catch four mice in half as manyminutes.
"In the dead of the night, when all were asleep, Reynard crept up towhere the fowls roosted, and finding out where the youngest and fattestwere perched, he snapped off the heads of a couple before they had eventime to flutter a feather. He then carried them to the window, opened itvery gently, dropped the dead bodies out on to the ground beneath, andthen sped away down to the house-door and bolted it.
"When he had done this, he returned to the old hens and woke them bygroaning in such a heartbreaking manner, that all the fowls crowdedround him to know what was amiss.
"'Alas!' cried he, 'it has been my sad lot to witness a most fearfulsight. That dog whom you keep down below to guard the house slipped inat the door, and going to the corner where the lovely young chickensroost, quicker than thought killed two that were more beautiful thanangels. I was chasing a mouse under the stairs at the time, and happenedto come up just as the dreadful deed was done, and I saw the robbermaking off with his booty. Only come with me a minute, and you shall seethat I have spoken the truth.'
"He took the scared and frightened fowls to the window, and when theylooked out, they saw to their horror their guardian Flaps sniffing atthe dead bodies on the ground outside.
"'Who would have thought it!' said the hens, in an awe-stricken whisper.
"'You may thank me,' said the fox, 'for my presence of mind in boltingthe house-door when he ran out, or no one knows how many more he wouldhave killed! If you will take my advice, you will send him about hisbusiness; and if you will put me in his place, I can assure you that youshall be protected in quite another manner.'
"'Hi! open the door,' cried Flaps, who saw something was wrong; 'you'vegot another King Stork, I'll be bound.' But though he rattled and shookthe door, no one unbolted it. 'Ah!' sighed Flaps, 'before long the wholepack of idiots will be killed and eaten.' So he scratched open an oldhole in the wall that had been stopped up, and crept in. He arrived justin time to hear the old hens giving orders that no more eggs were to begiven him, and that the door was to be kept bolted, in order that hemight be obliged either to leave the place or to starve.
"They were all talking at once, and so eagerly, that no one noticed thedog come up behind them. He gave one spring and seized the fox by thethroat. The attack was quite unexpected, but the fox fought, writhed,and wriggled like an eel, and just as he was being borne down, he madeone desperate snap, and bit off the dog's ear close to the head.
"'Well, my ear is done for, but so is this blood-thirsty villain,' saidFlaps, looking down at the fox, which lay dead at his feet; 'and as foryou, you pack of ungrateful fools, one ear is quite enough to listen toyou with. Here have I been your faithful comrade for all these years,and yet you believe that I have turned murderer in my old age on theword of this rogue, who did the evil deed himself last night.'
"Now that the panic was over, the fowls felt heartily ashamed ofthemselves for having been deceived by the fox, and done Flaps suchgreat injustice. So they all asked his pardon, and the feast which theyheld to celebrate their deliverance from the fox was even moremagnificent than the last, and it went on for two whole days.
"Hencastle was _en fete_ for a time, but it was a very short time. Forthe mice were no less glad than the fowls that their enemy was dead; andnow that both he and the owl had disappeared, they came out fearlesslyat all hours of the day, and lived a life quite free from trouble andcare.
"Not so the fowls. What was to be done with the ever-increasing colonyof corn-stealers? The more the fowls meditated, the more the micesqueaked and played about, and the more corn they dragged away intotheir holes. There was even a rumour that some one meddled with theeggs.
"There was nothing for it but to dispatch the three messengers a thirdtime, with directions to be more vigilant and careful than before. Awaythey flew, farther than ever. The first chance of help that arose wasfrom a couple of cats and a kite, who seemed likely to perform therequired work, but the cocks declined to accept their aid, feeling thatthe Hencastle had suffered too much already from two-winged andfour-legged protectors.
"At length the messengers reached a bit of waste ground close to avillage, and there they saw an extremely grimy-looking gipsy sitting ona bank. He knocked the ashes out of his black pipe, and muttered, 'I'vethe luck of a dog! Here am I with a lot of the best mouse-traps in theworld, and I haven't sold one this blessed day!'
"'Here's luck!' said the wise birds. 'That is exactly the man for us; heis neither two-winged nor four-legged, so he will be quite safe.'
"They flew down at once to the rat-catcher and made their proposition.He laughed softly and pleasantly to himself, and accepted theirinvitation without any demur, and started at once with a light step andlighter heart for Hencastle.
"Two days after this, the fowls heard Mark, the watchman, crowing awaylustily from his chimney-pot,
"'What do I see? Here come the three! And the black beast they bring Has no tail and no wing.'
"'But,' added the sentinel in less official language, 'he carries abundle of things that look like little houses made of wire.'
"The gipsy was at once taken up to the loft, and having, luckily, a fewscraps of strong-smelling bacon left over from his last night's supper,he struck a light and managed to make a small fire in the long-disusedgrate with some bits of dry grass and chips. He then frizzled some baconand baited his traps, and in less than ten minutes he had filled themall, for the mice had never smelt such a delicious thing as fried baconbefore, and besides, they were new to the wiles of man.
"The fowls were wild with delight, and in their thankfulness theybethought them of a special mark of favour, and every hen came cluckingup to him and laid an egg at his feet.
"For about a week the gipsy did nothing but catch mice and eat eggs; butall things must have an end, and the bacon ran out, just when the gipsyhad come to the conclusion that he was heartily sick of egg-diet. Beinga man of action, he put out his hand suddenly and caught the fattest andnicest young chicken within reach, and promptly wrung its neck.
"Oh, what a row there was in the henroost! The cocks began to crow loudenough to split their throats, and the hens to fly about and cackle. Theman was nearly deafened, and yelled out at the top of his voice, 'Whatdo you expect, you fools? Mice can only be caught with meat, and meat Imust and will have too.' He then let them rave on, and quietly andmethodically continued to pluck his chicken. When it was ready, he madea fire and began to roast it.
"In the meanwhile, Flaps had heard all the noise and outcry, and as itshowed no signs of abating, he thought the man was most likely inmischief, so he went into the castle.
"'Oh! Woe! Misery! Horror! Despair!' cried all the fowls a
t once as soonas they saw him. 'The murderer has slain young Scratchfoot the cock, andis just going to roast him!'
"'You're a dead man,' growled Flaps to the rat-catcher, as soon as hegot up to the loft.
"'I'm not so sure of that, my fine cur,' said the man, taking hold ofthe cudgel he had brought with him, and tucking up his sleeves.
"But the brave old dog sprang at him and bit him so severely that heuttered a savage groan, and dealt Flaps a heavy blow with his cudgel.This nearly broke the dog's leg and obliged him to relax his hold, onwhich the gipsy dashed down-stairs and ran away with such speed thatFlaps on three legs had no chance of overtaking him.
"'Wait a bit!' cried the man from afar. 'I'll remember you!' And thenhis retreating figure became smaller and smaller on the heath until atlast it disappeared altogether.
"This time the fowls had no heart for a feast. They sat brooding andmoping in rows on the rafters, for they began to see very clearly thatit was quite hopeless to try and get rid of the mice.
"Poor old Flaps, too, was very ill. A good many days elapsed before hecould get about, and for years he walked lame on his injured leg.
"One morning as the fowls were listlessly wandering about, wonderingwhat was to happen next, Mark, the watchman, was heard crowing away in avery excited manner,
"'What do I see? Twenty and three!'
"'What do you see?' cried they all in a great fright. 'Twenty and threewhat?'
"'An army of soldiers dressed in smock frocks. They are armed withpitchforks, and the black gipsy is their general.'
"The fowls flew up like a cloud to the roof, and sure enough they sawthe rat-catcher coming across the heath with a crowd of villagerstowards the castle.
"When they broke the doleful news to Flaps, he said, 'That scoundrel ofa man has betrayed our hiding-place, and we must wander forth again. Getready, and keep up your spirits, and remember that in any case we shouldnot have been able to stay here much longer, on account of the mice.'
"So the hens filled their crops as full as possible, and escaped withFlaps out at the back door.
"When the country-folk got to the house, they found nothing in it but asmall heap of corn; so they fell upon the gipsy and half killed him forhaving brought them on a fool's errand. Then they divided what littlecorn there was left, and went away.
"As to the mice they were left to whistle for their food.
"So ends the tale of the Hens of Hencastle."
"And a very fine tale too," said one of the stranger-hens who had beenasleep all the time, and woke up with a jump. "It was deeplyinteresting." The threshers happened to have stopped to rest for amoment, or she would never have woke at all.
"Of course it was!" said the cock, full of dignity; and he shook hisfeathers straight.
"But what became of the fowls afterwards?" asked one of the common hens.
"I never tell a hen a secret," said the cock; and he strutted off tohunt for worms.
FLAPS.
A SEQUEL TO "THE HENS OF HENCASTLE."
Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men Page 14
