Dear Brother Ben,
I take my pen
To tell you where,
And how, and when,
I found the nest
Of our speckled hen.
She would never lay,
In a sensible way,
Like other hens,
In the barn or the hay;
But here and there
And everywhere,
On the stable floor,
And the wood-house stair,
And once on the ground
Her eggs I found.
But yesterday
I ran away,
With mother's leave,
In the barn to play.
The sun shone bright
On the seedy floor,
And the doves so white
Were a pretty sight
As they walked in and out
Of the open door,
With their little red feet
And their features neat,
Cooing and cooing
More and more.
Well, I went out
To look about
On the platform wide,
Where side by side
I could see the pig-pens
In their pride;
And beyond them both,
On a narrow shelf,
I saw the speckled hen
Hide herself
Behind a pile
Of hoes and rakes
And pieces of boards
And broken stakes.
"Ah! ha! old hen,
I have found you now,
But to reach your nest
I don't know how,
Unless I could creep
Or climb or crawl
Along the edge
Of the pig-pen wall."
And while I stood
In a thoughtful meed,
The speckled hen cackled
As loud as she could,
And flew away,
As much as to say,
"For once my treasure
Is out of your way."
I did not wait
A moment then:
I couldn't be conquered
By that old hen!
But along the edge
Of the slippery ledge
I carefully crept,
For the great pigs slept,
And I dared not
even look to see
If they were thinking
Of eating me
But all at once,
Oh, what a dunce!
I dropped my basket
Into the pen,
The one you gave me,
Brother Ben;
There were two eggs in it,
By the way,
That I found in the manger
Under the hay.
Then the pigs got up
And ran about
With a noise between
A grunt and a shout.
And when I saw them,
Rooting, rooting,
Of course I slipped
And lost my footing,
And tripped,
And jumped,
And finally fell
Right down among
The pigs pell-mell.
For once in my life
I was afraid;
For the door that led
Out to the shed
Was fastened tight
With and iron hook,
And father was down
In the fields by the brook,
Hoeing and weeding
His rows of corn,
And here was his Polly
So scared and forlorn,
But I called him, and called him,
As loud as I could.
I knew he would hear me--
He must and he should.
"O father! O father!
(Get out, you old pig).
O father! oh! oh!"
For their mouths are so big.
Then I waited a minute
And called him again,
"O father! O father!
I am in the pig pen!"
And father did hear,
And he threw down his hoe,
And scampered as fast
As a father could go.
The pigs had pushed me
Close to the wall,
And munched my basket,
Eggs and all,
And chewed my sun-bonnet
Into a ball.
And one had rubbed
His muddy nose
All over my apron,
Clean and white;
And they sniffed at me,
And stepped on my toes,
But hadn't taken
The smallest bite,
When father opened
The door at last,
And oh! in his arms
He held me fast.