It was only a few days after the Young Cock had been carried away by
the Eagle, that the Man drove back from town with a very queer look
upon his face. A small crate in the back end of the light wagon
contained three odd-looking fowls. The Little Girls left their mud
pies and ran toward the wagon. When they saw the crate, they ran into
the house and called their mother to come out also.
"What have you now?" said she, as she stepped onto the side porch.
"Guinea-fowls," answered the Man. "Just listen to this letter." He
drew it from his pocket and read aloud: "I send you, by express, a
Guinea-Cock and two Guinea-Hens. They were given to me, and I have no
place for keeping them. I remember hearing that they are excellent
for scaring away Crows, so I send them on in the hope that they may be
useful to you. If you do not wish to keep them, do what you choose
with them."
As he read three small and perfectly bald heads were thrust through
the openings of the crate and turned and twisted until their owners
had seen everything around. "I don't know anything about
Guinea-fowls," said the Man, "but I will at least keep these long
enough to find out. I have seen the Crows fly down and annoy the Hens
several times, and it may be that these are just what we need."
He took the crate down and opened it carefully. The three fowls that
walked out looked almost exactly alike. All had very smooth and soft
coats of black feathers covered with small round white spots. They
were shaped quite like Turkeys, but were much smaller, with gray-brown
legs, and heads which were not feathered at all. The skin of their
faces and necks was red, and they had small wattles at the corners of
their mouths. Bristle-like feathers stood out straight around the
upper part of their necks, and below these were soft gray feathers
which covered the neck and part of the chest. They walked directly
toward the barnyard, where some of the farm fowls were picking up an
early dinner. "Ca-mac!" said they "Ca-mac! Ca-mac! We want some too."
Now the farm fowls were not especially polite, not having come of fine
families or been taught good manners when they were Chickens, yet they
did not at all like to have newcomers speak to them in this way. They
noticed it all the more, because when the White Plymouth Rocks came
they had acted so very differently. They stepped a little to one side,
giving the Guinea-fowls enough room in which to scratch and pick
around as they had been doing, but they did not say much to them.
The Gobbler was strutting back and forth among the smaller fowls. He
disliked living with them as much as he had to now, but the Hen
Turkeys would have nothing to say to him because he annoyed their
Chicks. They went off with their children and left him alone, and, as
he wanted company of some sort, he took what he could get. He thought
it might be a good plan to make friends with the Guinea-fowls.
"Good-morning," said he. "Have you come here to stay?"
"We shall stay if we like it," answered the Guinea-Cock. "We always do
what we like best."
"Humph!" said the Shanghai Cock to himself. "Remarkable fowls! Wonder
what the Man will think about that."
"I hope you will like it," said the Gobbler, who was so lonely that he
really tried hard to be agreeable. "I understand quite how you feel
about doing as you like. I always prefer to do what I prefer."
"We _do_ it," remarked one of the Guinea-Hens, as she chased the Brown
Hen away from the spot where she had been feeding, and swallowed a fat
Worm which the Brown Hen had just uncovered.
"Yes," said the other Guinea-Hen, "I guess we are just as good as
anybody else."
"Is there plenty to eat here?" asked the Guinea-Cock.
"Plenty," answered the Gobbler. "It is much better than it used to be.
There is a new Man here, and he takes better care of his fowls than
the Farmer did. He doesn't carry red handkerchiefs either."
"I don't care what kind of handkerchiefs he carries," said the
Guinea-Cock. "What makes you talk about such things?"
"You would know what makes me speak of them if you were a Gobbler,"
was the answer. "I cannot bear red things. I cannot even eat my corn
comfortably when anything red is around. You see it is quite
important. Anything which spoils a fellow's fun in eating is
important."
"Nothing would spoil my fun if I had the right sort of food," remarked
the Guinea-Cock. Then he turned to the Guinea-Hens. "Come," he said.
"We have eaten enough. Let us walk around and see the place."
All three started off, walking along where-ever they chose, and
stopping to feed or to talk about what they saw. Anybody could tell by
looking at them that they were related to the Turkeys, but the Gobbler
had not cared to remind them of that. He was looking for more company
during the time when his own family left him so much alone. He knew
that before very long the Turkey Chicks would be too large to fear
him, and that when that time came, their mothers and they would be
willing to walk with him. Then he would have less to do with the other
poultry, and might not want three bad-mannered Guinea-fowl cousins
tagging along after him.
Whenever the three met another fowl, they talked about him and said
exactly what they thought, and if they passed a Hen who had just found
a choice bit of food, they chased her away and ate it themselves.
Sometimes they even chased fowls who were not in their way and who
were not eating things that they wanted. It seemed as though they had
simply made up their minds to do what they wanted to do, whenever and
wherever they wished. They did not make much fuss about it, and if you
had seen them when they were doing none of these mean things, you
would have thought them very genteel. You would never have suspected
that they could act as they did.
The Gander and the Geese passed near the Guinea-fowls and the
Guinea-fowls did not chase them. They were not foolish enough to annoy
people so much larger than they. It is true that the Hens were larger
than they, yet the Guinea-fowls could make them run every time. If
they had troubled the Geese, it might have ended with the Guinea-fowls
doing the running. And the Guinea-fowls were cowards. They would never
quarrel with people unless they were sure of beating.
"S-s-s-s-s-s-s!" said the Gander. "Are we to have that sort of people
on this farm? If we are, I would rather live somewhere else. I do not
see why there should be any disagreeable people anyway."
"There should not be," said the Geese, who always agreed with
everything the Gander said, and who really believed as he did about
this. "Disagreeable people should be sent away, or eaten up, or
something."
Both the Gander and the Geese thought themselves exceedingly
agreeable, and so they were--when everything suited them. At other
times they were often quite cross. Many people act like this, and seem
to think it very sweet of them not to be cross all the time. Truly
agreeable people, as you very well know, are those who can keep
pleasant when things go wrong.
"Ca-mac!" said the three Guinea-fowls together. "There are some of
those stupid Geese, who are always walking around and eating grass
that is too short for anybody else. They eat grass, and grow feathers
for Farmers' Wives to pluck off. When we have gone to the trouble of
growing a fine coat of feathers, we keep them as long as we wish, and
then they drop out, a few at a time. If anybody wants our feathers, he
must follow around after us and pick them up."
Before night came, the Guinea-fowls had met and annoyed nearly all the
poultry on the place. They had even made dashes at the smallest
Chickens and frightened them dreadfully. The Man had been too busy to
see much of the trouble that they made, but his Little Girls noticed
it, for they had been watching the Guinea-fowls and hoping to find
some of their beautiful spotted feathers lying around. When the Little
Girls were eating their supper of bread and milk, they told their
father about it.
"They walk around and look too good for anything," said the
brown-haired one, "but whenever they get a chance they chase the Hens
and the Chickens."
"Yes," said the golden-haired Little Girl, "I even saw one of them
scare the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen, the one who ate bread and salt
with you."
"That is very bad," said the Man, gravely. "Any fowl that troubles the
Barred Plymouth Rock Hen must be punished."
"What will you do to them?" asked the golden-haired Little Girl. "I
think you will have to shut them up. You couldn't spank them, could
you? Not even if you wanted to ever so much."
"I shall decide to-night how to punish them," said the Man, "and then
in the morning we will see about it." When he spoke he did not know
how much time he would spend in thinking about the Guinea-fowls that
night.
When it was time for them to go to roost, the Guinea-fowls fluttered
and hopped upward until they reached quite a high branch in the
apple-tree by the Man's chamber window. Then, instead of going to
sleep for the night, as one would think they would wish to do, they
took short naps and awakened from time to time to visit with each
other. It is true that they had seen much that was new during the day,
and so had more than usual to talk about, but this was really no
excuse, because they had the habit of talking much at night and would
have been nearly as noisy if nothing at all had happened.
The Man was just going to sleep when they awakened from one of their
naps and began to chat. "Ca-mac! Ca-mac!" said one. "I suppose those
stupid fowls in the poultry-house are sound asleep, with their heads
tucked under their wings. What do you think of the company here?"
"Good enough," said another. "I don't like any of them very much, but
you can't expect Geese and Ducks to be Guinea-fowls. We don't have to
talk to them. The Gobbler is trying to be agreeable, and when the Hen
Turkeys can think of any thing besides their children we may find them
good company."
"It is a good thing that there are so many Hens here," said the third.
"The Man throws out their grain and then we can scare them away and
eat all we want of it. What fun it is to see Hens run when they are
frightened!"
After this short visit they went to sleep again, and so did the Man.
But they went to sleep much more quickly than he did, and he was very
tired and disliked being disturbed in that way. He had just fallen
asleep when one of the Guinea-Hens awakened again. "Ca-mac!" said she
to the others. "Ca-mac! Ca-mac! I have thought of something to say.
How do you like the idea of living on this place?"
"We like it," answered the Guinea-Cock and the other Guinea-Hen. Then
they went on to tell why they liked it. They said that there were no
children of the stone-throwing kind, no Dog, and no Cat. They had
plenty of room for the long walks which they liked to take, and there
were many chances to get the food which the Man threw out. When they
had spoken of all these things the Guinea-Cock said: "It is decided
then that we will stay here instead of running away to another farm.
This is a good enough place for any fowl. Now let us take another
nap."
While they were thinking this, the Man was thinking something quite
different. In the morning while the Guinea-fowls were eating grain
which had been strewn in one of the yards, the Man closed the gate,
and, helped by the Little Girls, drove the three Guinea-fowls into a
corner and caught them. Then he put them into the crate in which they
had come, and took them across the road to the Farmer who lived there.
When this was done there were many happy people left behind on the
poultry-farm. The Little Girls were happy, because they had found four
feathers which the Guinea-fowls lost in trying to get away from the
Man. The Hens were happy, because they could now be more sure of
eating the food which they found. The other poultry were glad to think
that they would not have to listen to new-comers saying such dreadful
things about them, and perhaps the Man, when he came back, was the
happiest of all. "I gave them to the Farmer over there," he said, "and
he will give them to a poor family far away. I have stopped keeping
Guinea-fowls to scare away the Crows. I would rather keep Crows to
scare away the Guinea-fowls, but I think we can get along very
comfortably without either." And the poultry thought so too.