"Is it a chicken?" asked Mary Jane as she saw the direction they were
taking.
"Bless the child!" exclaimed Grandmother, "she can ask questions the
fastest! No, my dear, it isn't a chicken! You'd better wait and see."
"Yes, I'm a-waiting," said Mary Jane with a tiny sigh, "but I hope it
isn't very long waiting, 'cause I like to see what I'm going to have."
And she skipped along by her grandmother as fast as she could.
Fortunately it wasn't very far to the chicken house, so she hadn't long
to wait. They went in at the front of the house; that was no surprise
because Mary Jane had been there every day of her visit. She looked
around quickly but she didn't see anything new, anything that looked
like a surprise. But Grandmother didn't stop there; she went on back
through a little door Mary Jane had never noticed, and into a room that
was nice and warm and had a big desk in it. Or at least Mary Jane
thought it looked like a big desk. And there wasn't anything there
that looked like a surprise; Mary Jane would have begun to be worried
if she hadn't been so sure Grandmother must know what she was talking
about.
"Now, let's see how heavy you are," said Grandmother, "maybe we'll need
your Grandfather after all." She put her hands under Mary Jane's arms
and tried to lift her up. "I can do it but I can't hold you long
enough," she said with a shake of her head, "better run call your
grandfather, dear."
"But he's way out in the barn," cried Mary Jane who was fairly dancing
with eagerness she was so anxious to see the surprise; "can't I get a
chair?" And then she thought how silly that was when of course there
wasn't a chair in the chicken house! "Or a box, Grandmother," she
added as an after thought.
"A box?" questioned Grandmother, looking around thoughtfully, "oh, yes!
I know. There's one right out in that next room. It's not very heavy
and I believe you can get it yourself, Mary Jane. Suppose you try."
Mary Jane was very glad to try. She hurried out the door into the
other room, spied the box over in the corner and dragged it back into
the little room where Grandmother was waiting.
"See, Grandmother?" she said proudly. "I can stand on it."
"So you can, so you can," agreed Grandmother much pleased. "You're a
good planner, little girl. Now turn the box on its long side, so; and
climb on it; then--"
"What's that noise?" exclaimed Mary Jane suddenly as through the quiet
of the little room she heard a queer, "Peep! Peep!" So many "peeps,"
so soft and low that she was hardly sure she heard them.
"Never mind!" cried Grandmother, who was looking into the big case that
Mary Jane had thought was a desk. "Climb up quickly and look!"
Mary Jane needed no second urging. She set the box on its long side
and, grasping her grandmother's hand firmly so it wouldn't tip over as
she stepped on it, she climbed up and looked into the "desk."
Such a sight as met her eyes! Tiny little chicks! Rows and rows and
rows of them! Under the glass cover of that queer looking case.
"They's about a million!" she gasped in amazement, "all in one box!"
"Not a million, dear," laughed Grandmother, "but a good many and
they're almost ready to take out."
"But how did they get in?" asked Mary Jane much puzzled.
Grandmother explained that the queer looking "desk" was really an
incubator--a box in which eggs were kept warm till the little creature
inside each egg was big enough to break the shell and take care of
itself.
Mary Jane looked and looked and looked and thought it was the most
wonderful of all the many wonders she had seen at Grandmother's. She
thought of a dozen questions she wanted to ask, but Grandmother seemed
so busy tending to this and that and the other that she decided to wait
till some other time to ask them.
"Now, dear," said Grandmother, "you stay here and be deciding which you
want for yours while I get your grandfather to help me take them out.
I was so in hopes you could see this, pet, because I knew you'd like
to."
She bustled out of the room in search of Grandfather, and Mary Jane
studied over the rows of chickens. And just at that minute she spied
_them_! She knew the second she saw them that there was her family.
They were huddled down in one corner, all six of them and they seemed
lonesome and--well, different. Of course Mary Jane may have imagined
that, but so it seemed to her. Their bills were funny and their eyes
were different from the eyes of the other chicks, and the shape of
their tails and of their wings seemed different, some way.
"I'm going to have you and give you a nice time," said Mary Jane,
whispering tenderly above the case cover. "I'd like to take care of
you, so don't you mind if you are funny!" And with the tip, tip of her
finger, she touched the glass directly over them.
Just then Grandmother Hodges came back into the room with Grandfather
right behind her.
"Grandmother!" cried Mary Jane eagerly, "may I have any ones? May I
pick them out? May I have these funny little ones? These that are all
by their lonesomes in the corner?"
Grandfather and Grandmother both looked to where Mary Jane pointed.
"The ducks!" they exclaimed together. "They came out all right!"
Then Grandmother added, "To be sure you may have them, Mary Jane.
Those are ducks, and I put in six eggs so we could have a bit of roast
duck, come winter. They'll be sure to get into trouble with the
chickens and I would be so glad if you'll make them your family and
look after them for me. Here, Father," she said to her husband, "let's
take them out for her first." So Grandfather got the basket Mary Jane
and her grandmother had brought out with them and then he held up the
glass cover while Grandmother tenderly lifted the tiny ducks, one by
one, and set them inside. Then she covered them all over with a thick
cover.
"But Grandmother," cried Mary Jane in dismay, "they can't breathe!
They'll die!"
"Not they," laughed Grandmother. "Run along now, and set the basket in
the sun by your rabbit box. I'll be right out and fix them up for you."
So for the second time that day, Mary Jane found herself carrying a
basket of living creatures. "Wouldn't Doris like to be here!" she said
to herself as she thought of her little friend back home, "and wouldn't
I like to show her my family!" She walked slowly and carefully so as
not to tip the baby ducks and it was with a sigh of relief that she
finally set them down by the rabbit box.
Fortunately, Grandmother came along in just a few minutes so Mary Jane
didn't have time to worry about the "peeps" that were coming more and
more loudly from the basket.
Grandmother took the ducks one by one from the basket and set them on
some soft bits of old wool in the corner of the box. "We don't need a
cover for this box," she said, pulling at the screen Grandfather had
tacked on, "till they get bigger. We'll take it off so you can take
care of them easier. There now!" she added as the screen came off,
"we'll cover them up so," and she laid the soft cloth that had been on
the basket over the little ducks; "now we'll let them be for a while."
"But we didn't feed them, Grandmother," objected Mary Jane.
"To be sure not," laughed Grandmother. "They don't want anything to
eat just yet. Not to-day. All they want is to be warm and cozy."
"Don't they want anything to drink either?" asked Mary Jane.
"No," replied Grandmother, "nothing to drink either. To-morrow you can
fix them a drinking dish and I'll show you about their food, but now,
we'll just let them be. Listen! What's that?"
Grandmother straightened up and counted the rings of her telephone bell.
"Yes, that's our ring. You take this basket back to your grandfather
while I answer it."
But before Mary Jane got out to the chicken house Grandmother was back
at the kitchen steps calling, "Father! Father!" And then as she got
no answer she called to Mary Jane, "Mary Jane! Tell your grandfather
it's long distance and he should come quick!"
Mary Jane hurried in to tell her grandfather the message and then she
waited, wonderingly, till he should come back. Had anything happened?