Dick and His Cat and Other Tales Part 15

_Write:_ Poor Betty had her toe bitten off. She was put into a place out of sight. Here she was in great pain, and had lost all hopes of a prize.

Questions: 1. After a time how did Betty feel? 2. What did she do with her foot? 3. What happened to one of her toes?

4. Where was she put after her toe was bitten off? 5. What was the boy told to do for Betty? 6. What did the man say that she was fit for now?

6. A NEW HOME.

1. Poor Betty had plenty of time to think over all her troubles. But after two or three days she heard a sound which made her feel very happy.

2. It was the voice of her old friend the coachman, who had come to fetch her away. She cackled to him in a most loving way; but, alas! the coachman had nothing to say to her.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW HOME.]

3. He was cross and sulky because Betty had not won a prize.

"Poor thing!" said the cook when Betty got home, "what an object she looks to be sure! She is as light as a feather.

4. "The mother that hatched her won't know her again. I declare that I don't believe this is our Betty at all, but some old rubbish of a bird they have sent us instead!"

5. "Oh yes," said her mistress, coming up to look, "it is our Betty.

But I beg of you to get rid of her at once. I cannot bear the sight of her after thinking she would get a prize."

6. "Shall I step out and do it at once?" said the cook, calmly.

"No, no!" said the mistress. "Do not kill her. Give her away. She will be a useful hen to some one else, and is sure to lay plenty of eggs."

"Very good, ma'am," replied the cook.

7. There was no was.h.i.+ng this time before Betty was sent away. That was one comfort. She was huddled, just as she was, into a hamper, and sent as a present to a friend of the cook.

8. This friend was the wife of a farmer, and she was such a kind, good, rosy, happy, pleasant woman, that it was quite a treat to look at her.

She lived about five miles from Betty's old home.

9. The large farm-yard into which Betty now stepped from her hamper, was like a new world to her. She began at once to dig with those of her sharp claws which were left.

10. And finding chalk like that which had been under the soil at home, she nodded her head and chuckled, for she was pleased. No hen can be happy without chalk, after she is old enough to lay eggs.

11. She knew that the yard in which she now was, would be a fine place for her young brood. They would not be likely to get the cramp or catch colds.

12. The fowl-house was built on a gentle slope, and below, at some little distance, was a pond with two or three green islands in the middle of it. Here some water birds, such as Betty had never seen before, were paddling about.

13. She could not think how they did it. The yard had good shelter from rough, cold winds, for a fir wood was at the back of it. And the houses for cattle and horses stood with their backs to it on two sides.

14. The houses where the hens were to sit on their eggs, were sprinkled with chalk laid over dry coal ashes. This was to keep the floor clean and wholesome.

They were swept out often. The perches for roosting were not thin sticks, but nice stout boughs of trees, so that the feet could clasp them without slipping.

_Write:_ The new home to which Betty was sent pleased her. She thought that she should soon forget her sorrows. The fowl-house was nice and clean.

Questions: 1. To whom was Betty sent? 2. What sort of woman was the farmer's wife? 3. When Betty stepped out of her hamper what did she begin to do? 4. What did she find? 5.

What was the hen-house like?

7. TWELVE LITTLE CHICKS.

1. Her friends at the old home had all walked on dry land. But here she found many ducks and drakes, besides odd-looking fowls with feathers down their legs.

2. Spring came, and Betty paced the yard with twelve fine chickens behind her. All of them had five toes on each little foot, as their mother had when she was born. So they were all right.

3. Down the velvet back of each chick were stripes of dark brown, which was the proper pattern for their first short coats. After a time they would put off baby-clothes, and be dressed in pure white like their mother.

4. As her chicks slept under her wings, or chirped with their merry little voices, she forgot all else but her darlings. What did it matter having one claw too few, now that she had her dear babies?

5. Betty took care to keep her children neat, and to teach them good manners. "You may gobble up a worm, children, as fast as you like, when you find it, so that no one else may get it," said she.

6. "But don't let me see two of you having a fight, or both tugging at the same worm. You must not ruffle up your feathers at each other, or fight, though you may do so if you meet a rat."

7. As Betty was such an anxious and watchful mother herself, she could not help feeling quite vexed at the way in which Snowdrop, one of the ducks, went on.

8. This big white duck did not seem to mind a bit whether her children were a credit to her or not. "See!" said this good hen, pointing to her twelve clean little chicks. "Where will you find such children as mine?

9. "I spend all my time in teaching them how to behave themselves. I show them how to walk nicely, and how to pick up their meals in a proper way.

10. "I show them how to keep their feathers combed and brushed. But you, bad mother that you are, allow your poor little yellow ducklings to shuffle in the mud up to their wings.

11. "And twice I have seen them at the very edge of the pond. It made me shudder! It will be a wonder if they do not get drowned, or catch their death of cold. How thin and pale they look!"

12. As Betty said these words to Snowdrop, the old duck shook her bill, and after a few more quacks turned her back and waddled off.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BETTY'S CHICKS.]

13. Soon after this, a magpie came down to tell all the fowls in the yard that one of Snowdrop's ducklings had been eaten by a rat, and that a second had been stolen by a hawk.

14. Two more of them had run away under the gate and had strayed towards a tent where some gipsies lived. As they never came back, it was thought that the gipsies had taken them off.

15. A fifth of the brood, which had been weakly from birth, had caught cold in a bitter wind and died. And the last had pined away from feeling lonely after losing all its brothers and sisters.

_Write:_ The hen had now twelve chicks. She took more care of her children than the duck did of hers. Betty thought Snowdrop a bad mother.

Questions: 1. What other creatures did Betty see in the yard? 2. How many chickens had she? 3. What did she teach them? 4. What was the name of the duck? 5. What sort of mother was she? 6. What did Betty say to her?