Part 5 (1/2)

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 sh.e.l.l. 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 s.h.i.+ny 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 beside it. I'll have my nest where he'll never discover it--not if he hunts for it all summer long!”

So saying, she left the haymow. And going into the carriage shed, her roving eyes chanced to light on an old straw hat of Johnnie Green's that lay upside down upon a high shelf.

Henrietta Hen managed to flutter up beside it. And then with many a chuckle she laid a brown egg in the hat.

”There!” she cackled. ”This is the safest place on the farm. Johnnie Green hasn't had this hat on his head since last summer.”

XIII

TWO IN A GARDEN

Jimmy Rabbit was enjoying a few nibbles at one of Farmer Green's cabbages. He hadn't noticed that there was anybody but himself in the garden. So it startled him to hear a shrill voice cry, ”Get out of our garden!”