ckens did not concern him in the least. He didn't
know what they were, and, as no flesh was in his eyes good to eat, he
didn't care. But he hoped they might have such a thing as a carrot about
them."

"Oh-h-h! What would _they_ have a carrot for?" protested the Babe.

Uncle Andy scorned to notice this remark. "When Young Grumpy approached
the coop," he continued, "the red hen squawked frantically, and the
chickens all ran in under her wings. Young Grumpy eyed her with
curiosity for a moment, as she screamed at him with open beak and ruffled
up all her feathers. But in the coop was a big slice of turnip, at which
she had been pecking. He knew at once this would be good, perhaps as
good as a carrot, and he flattened himself against the bars trying to get
in at it.

"The next moment he got a great surprise. The red hen hurled herself at
him with such violence that, although the bars protected him, he was
almost knocked over. He received a smart jab from her beak, and her
bristling feathers came through the bars in a fashion that rather took
away his breath. He was furious. Again and again he strove to force his
way in, now on one side, now on the other. But always that fiery bunch
of beak and claw and feathers seemed to burst in his face. Had it not
been for the bars, indeed, the red hen would have given him an awful
mauling. But this, of course, he was too self-confident to suspect.
With characteristic obstinacy, he kept up the struggle for fully five
minutes, while the terrified chickens filled the air with their pipings
and the hen screamed herself hoarse. Then, feeling a little sore, to be
sure, but very certain that he had impressed the hen, he strolled off to
look for some delicacy less inaccessible than that piece of turnip.

"At this point the one-eyed gander came waddling up from the goose pond.
He was lonely and bad-tempered, for his two wives had been killed by a
fox that spring, and the Boy had not yet found him a new mate. Young
Grumpy looked at the big gray bird and recalled the little unpleasantness
of their previous encounter.

"'Oh, ho!' said he to himself--if woodchucks ever _do_ talk to
themselves--'I'll just give that ugly chap beans, like I did the other
day.' And he went scurrying across the yard to see about it.

"To his surprise, the gander paid him no attention whatever. You see, he
was on the side of the gander's blind eye.

"Now, Young Grumpy was so puzzled by this indiff