"She always has looked, and always will look first after her own comfort
or pleasure, no matter how much others may suffer. Any other bird on
this farm would have been so ashamed, after doing what Mrs. Pea-Hen has,
that she'd never hold up her head again, and what I'm going to tell you
isn't the first selfish thing she has done.
"About four weeks ago Mrs. Pea-Hen made a great fuss over wanting to
bring up a family, and began to set on anything and everything she could
find that looked like an egg. Well, Mr. Man made a nice nest for her,
and put in it thirteen white eggs. No hen could have asked for a better
place in which to show what she was able to do, and whenever any of us
went to call on her, Mrs. Pea-Hen had a great deal to say about what she
would do when her family came out of the shells.
"I can't deny but that she sat there faithfully, and took proper care of
the eggs, and, of course, out came thirteen as pretty little chickens as
you could want to see. Mrs. Pea-Hen seemed to be real proud because she
had so many babies, and after the last one was hatched she called all of
them out for a walk.
"They came from the nest with considerable noise, such as all youngsters
make, and no sooner did she hear the first peep than Mrs. Pea-Hen turned
around like a flash, looking at first one and then another until she had
seen the whole brood.
"'Why, they are nothing but ordinary chickens!' she cried, and off she
walked, paying no heed to the poor little things when they called after
her for something to eat.
"'Are you going away and leave those dear little babies with no one to
care for them?' Mamma Speckle asked angrily, and Mrs. Pea-Hen replied,
as if to say she didn't allow any one to meddle with her family affairs:
"'Of course I am! Do you suppose a fowl of my standing in society would
spend her time looking after a lot of common chickens?'
[Illustration: The Hard-Hearted Mrs. Pea-Hen.]
"'But they'll starve to death!' Mamma Speckle cried, as if she was
almost heart-broken.
"'That's no concern of mine. Mr. Man made me believe they were my own
eggs, else I'd never sat on them a single hour,' Mrs. Pea-Hen said, as
she kept on walking away with never a look at the poor little babies,
and Mamma Speckle called after her:
"'You was so crazy to set that you would have tried to hatch out a nest
full of stones, if you couldn't have found anything better!'
"Mrs. Pea-Hen tried to act as if she didn't hear what Mamma Speckle
said; but she couldn't help it, for you know how loud the speckled hen
talks. She never paid any attention to the babies, though, and the other
fowls took care of them as best they could with babies of their own."