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The Tale of Henrietta Hen, a short story by Arthur Scott Bailey |
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XXII - ALMOST HOMESICK |
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_ XXII - ALMOST HOMESICK Never in all her life had Henrietta Hen seen so many hens and roosters and chicks as she found on every side of her, at the fair. Farmer Green and his son Johnnie had set her pen in the Poultry Hall. And to Henrietta's surprise, none of her new neighbors paid much attention to her and her chicks--at first. She soon decided that there was a reason for this neglect. She made up her mind that she would have to make herself heard amid all that uproar or the others would never know she had arrived. Luckily Henrietta had a strong voice. She used it to the utmost. And it wasn't long before a huge hen in a pen next hers gave her a bold look and asked, "What are you here for?" "I've come to get the first prize," Henrietta answered calmly. She had listened carefully to what Farmer Green and Johnnie had said to each other during the journey from the farm. And already she knew something about fairs. Her new neighbor laughed right in Henrietta's face. "I don't see how you can win the first prize," she said with a sniff. "I'm going to get the first prize myself. There never was another such fine family as mine." She glanced proudly at her chicks as she spoke. "The best you can hope for," she told Henrietta, "is the second prize. And you'll be lucky if you get the third." For once Henrietta Hen was at a loss for a retort. "I don't believe you've ever been at a fair before," her new neighbor observed. Henrietta admitted faintly that she hadn't. "Last year I won second prize," said the other. "I'd have had the first if the judges had known their business." Henrietta Hen began to feel very shaky in her legs. She had expected a different sort of greeting, when she should arrive at the fair. She had thought everybody would exclaim, "Here comes Henrietta Hen! What a fine family of chicks she has! And aren't Mrs. Hen's speckles beautiful?" And there she was, with nobody paying any heed to her, except the lofty dame in the next pen, who had said nothing very agreeable. "Oh, dear!" Henrietta sighed. "I wish I'd never left home." "What's that?" her neighbor inquired in a sharp tone. "You aren't homesick, are you?" "N-no!" said Henrietta. "But I had expected to win the first prize. And I don't know what my friends will say when I come back home without it." "Well, everybody can't win it," said her new acquaintance. "Not the same year, anyhow!" And then she looked Henrietta up and down for a few moments, while Henrietta squirmed uneasily. "Where do you come from?" she asked at last. "I live on Farmer Green's place, in Pleasant Valley," Henrietta informed her. The lady in the next pen shook her head. "I've never heard of Pleasant Valley," she remarked, "nor of Farmer Green. He must be small potatoes." Well, Henrietta was astonished. She began to feel as if she were nobody at all. She had supposed that everybody knew of Pleasant Valley--and of Farmer Green, too. As for the remark, "small potatoes," she didn't understand it at all. So she inquired what it meant. "It means," said her neighbor, "that Farmer Green can't be of much account." That speech made Henrietta Hen almost lose her temper. "Mr. Green," she cried, "is a fine man. And I'll have you know that I wouldn't live anywhere but on his farm!" _ |
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