at is quite a new article which I have just
received."

Ned was not used to being called young gentleman. He was nothing but a
boy. Of course, he went to look at the new article, after this. Every
one but him and the shopman had left the shop. It was very quiet, and,
just as the shopman had finished speaking, a cock, who was in a crate
in the corner, set up the loudest crowing that Ned had ever heard, and
with a decidedly foreign tone.

In a moment, Ned made up his mind that cock he would have. His father
had given him leave to keep fowls, and he already had a cock and three
hens of a fine breed.

"What's the price of that fellow?" said he; "he's a real buster; he'll
wake us all up early enough in the morning."

"A dollar, and cheap enough, too," said the shopman; "but, as it's you,
and I know your family, you shall have it for that."

"I have only seventy-five cents," said Ned, "and shall have no more
till next week, when I have my allowance. If you will trust me, and are
willing to wait, I will take the rooster."

"Suppose the critter was to die afore then," said the shopman, "would
you pay all the same?"

"To be sure," said Ned; and the bargain was settled.

The shopman advised him not to take the cock away before dark. Ned
agreed to wait till then. Just before his bed time, he went for
Chanticleer, and brought him as quietly as possible to the house. He
was afraid to put the new master of the poultry yard on the roost with
the old cock, lest they should fight in the morning; so he carried his
treasure softly up to his own bedroom in which was a large closet where
he had prepared a temporary roost. The cock, who was very tame, as he
had been always a pet, made no fuss, but went to sleep on his new
roost. So did Ned in his comfortable bed.

Now it so happened that this large closet was between Ned's bedroom and
that of his father who, as we have before mentioned, had been seriously
ill, and who particularly demanded quiet. All the first part of the
night the sick man had been tossing all out, very uneasy, till about
three o'clock in the morning, when he fell into a sweet sleep. His
wife, weary with anxiety and watching, was trying to get a nap in the
easy chair, when, suddenly, close by them, as if in the very room, came
an indescribable screech, an unearthly, long, shrill cock-a-doodle-do
yell, such as only a fancy feathered biped can perform.

The poor invalid screamed with horror, and his wife would hav