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The Tale of Henrietta Hen, a short story by Arthur Scott Bailey |
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XIII - TWO IN A GARDEN |
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_ 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!" Jimmy Rabbit jumped. But he didn't jump far, for he soon saw that it was only Henrietta Hen speaking to him. "Why should I get out of our garden?" Jimmy Rabbit inquired mildly. "I should have said, 'Farmer Green's garden,'" said Henrietta Hen. "Thank you very much for the warning; but I don't think we need go away just yet--if old dog Spot isn't sniffing around," said Jimmy Rabbit. "I don't believe there's any danger." "You don't understand," Henrietta Hen cried. "I ordered you out of the garden." "You ordered me?" said Jimmy Rabbit, acting as if he were astonished. "Yes!" Henrietta declared. "And I'd like to know when you're going to obey me." "It's easy to answer that," Jimmy Rabbit replied. "I'm going away as soon as I've finished my luncheon." Nobody could have been pleasanter than he. Yet Henrietta Hen seemed determined to be disagreeable. "I don't see your lunch basket," she remarked, looking all around. "No!" he replied. "I forgot it. I meant to bring one with me and carry a cabbage-head home in it." Henrietta Hen spoke as if she were very peevish. "You've no right," she said, "to take one of the cabbages away with you." "I'm not going to," Jimmy Rabbit explained. "You were nibbling at one when I first noticed you," Henrietta Hen insisted. "Was I?" he gasped. "Are you sure you're not mistaken? Are you sure you weren't pecking at a cabbage-leaf yourself?" Now, the truth of the matter was that Henrietta had herself come to the garden to eat cabbage. Really she was no better than he was. But somehow Henrietta Hen never could believe that she was in the wrong. "You're impertinent," she told Jimmy [Illustration: Henrietta Hen Scolds Jimmy Rabbit. (Page 62)] Rabbit in her severest tone. "You know very well that Farmer Green raises these cabbages for home use only." "Well," said Jimmy Rabbit, "I'll make myself at home here, then." And turning a cold shoulder on Henrietta Hen he began nibbling at a cabbage-leaf once more. Henrietta felt quite helpless. Somehow nothing she could say to the intruder seemed to have the slightest effect on him. And he appeared to be enjoying his luncheon so thoroughly that it made Henrietta Hen very hungry just to see him eat. In spite of herself she couldn't resist joining him at luncheon. "Ah!" he exclaimed between mouthfuls, "I see you're making yourself at home, too." Henrietta Hen tried to look very dignified. She pecked at the cabbage in an absent-minded fashion, pretending that it was no treat to her. As a matter of fact, she had been trying to get a taste of cabbage for a long while. And this was the first time she had managed to crawl through the garden fence. "One has to eat something," she murmured. Jimmy Rabbit smiled slyly. Henrietta Hen couldn't deceive him. He knew that she was as fond of cabbage as he was himself. "Did you ever hear it said," he asked her suddenly, "that eating too much cabbage causes long ears?" _ |
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