kens.
She would not waste time talking to him. Whenever he came near her that
day, he ate everything but gravel. He had his own way and yet he was not
happy. For some reason, nothing seemed to be any fun. Even lying under
the bushes on the sunshiny side was not comfortable, and when he
wallowed in the dust with his brothers and sisters he didn't enjoy that.

Things went on this way for a good many days, and at last he saw that
his shadow was only a small black spot on the ground, while his
brothers and sisters had big fat shadows. He heard the Black Spanish
Cock call him a Bantam, and the Shanghai Cock say that he wouldn't live
until his spurs grew. One of the Dorking Chickens was talking to her
sister, and he heard her say, "Imagine him at the head of a flock!" Then
she laughed, a mean, cackling little laugh.

That night, when the rest were asleep in the apple-tree, he walked
softly down the slanting board and ate gravel. The next morning he felt
better than he had in a long time, so when there was nobody around he
ate some more. He didn't want anyone else to know that he had found out
his mistake. Every morning he looked at his shadow, and it grew fatter
and fatter. Still he was not happy, and he knew it was because he had
not told his patient old mother. He wanted to tell her, too. One day he
heard her telling his brother to eat more gravel, and the brother said
he didn't like the taste of it. That made him speak at last.

"Suppose you don't like it, you can eat it. Queer world it would be if
we didn't have to do unpleasant things. I've just made up my mind that
the people who won't do hard things, when they ought to, have the
hardest times in the end. Wish I'd minded my mother and eaten gravel
when she told me to, and I'm not going to let you be as foolish as I
was."

Just then he heard somebody say of him, "What a fine-looking fellow he
is growing to be! I like him ever so much now."

It was the Dorking Chicken who had laughed at him. He ran after a
Grasshopper, and she ran after the same Grasshopper, and they ran
against each other and the Grasshopper got away, so of course they had
to wander off together to find something to eat, and after that they
became great friends.

The Shanghai Hen looked lovingly after him and raised one foot in the
air. "Now," she said, "I am perfectly happy."

THE GOOSE WHO WANTED HER OWN WAY

It would be hard to tell which family is the most important among the
farmya