e? Hi, there, whitest of Hens!

THE WHITE HEN
[_Hopping towards him._] You were saying?

THE PIGEON
I was about to say--

THE WHITE HEN
What, bluest of Pigeons?

THE PIGEON
That I should consider myself past expression fortunate if--But no! I am
abashed at my own boldness!--if I might be so favoured as to be
permitted to get a glimpse--

THE WHITE HEN
Of what?

THE PIGEON
Oh, just a glimpse, the very least glimpse of--

ALL THE HENS
[_Impatiently._] Of what?--What?

THE PIGEON
Of his comb!

THE WHITE HEN
[_Laughing, to the others._] Ha! ha! he wishes to see--

THE PIGEON
[_In great excitement._] That's it! Just to see--

THE WHITE HEN
There, there, cool down!

THE PIGEON
I am shaking with excitement!

THE WHITE HEN
You are shaking down the roof!

THE PIGEON
You can't think how we admire him!

THE WHITE HEN
Oh, everyone admires him!

THE PIGEON
And I promised my missis to tell her what he is like!

THE WHITE HEN
[_Quietly pecking._] Oh, he's a fine fellow, no doubt
of that!

THE PIGEON
We can hear him crowing from our dove-cote. The One he is whose song is
more an ornament to the landscape than the white hamlet to the hill! The
One he is whose cry pierces the blue horizon like a gold-threaded needle
stitching the hill-tops to the sky! The Cock he is! When you would
praise him, call him the Cock!

THE BLACKBIRD
[_Hopping up and down in his cage._] Tick-tock!--who sets all hearts
a-beating, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock!

A HEN
Our Cock!

THE BLACKBIRD
[_Thrusting his head between the bars of his cage._] My, thy, his, her,
our, your, and their Cock!

THE TURKEY
[_To the_ PIGEON.] He will soon be coming in from his usual round in the
fields.

THE PIGEON
You have the honour of his acquaintance, sir?

THE TURKEY
[_Importantly._] I have known him from a baby. This chick--for to me he
is still a chick!--used to come to me for his bugle lesson.

THE PIGEON
Ah, indeed? You give lessons in--

THE TURKEY
Certainly. A bird who can gobble is qualified to teach crowing.

THE PIGEON
Where was he born?

THE TURKEY
[_Indicating an old covered basket, badly battered and broken._] In that
old basket.

THE PIGEON
And is the hen who brooded him still living?

THE TURKEY
[_Again indicating the basket._] She is there.

THE PIGEON
Where?

THE TURKEY
In that old basket.

THE PIGEON
[_More and more interested._] Of what breed is she?

THE TURKEY
She is just a good old-