wasn't any railroad.

At the Old Barnyard, however, things were very different, for the
railroad made a turn just there and came in very close to the Big Red
Barn.

Cocky Doodle had all he could do to keep the Barnyard Folk out of
danger. Every morning after his early cock-a-doodle-do he read them a
lesson on the dangers of crossing railroad tracks.

For a while Henny Penny laid her eggs in the Henhouse. The truth was
that her nest in the corner of the Old Rail Fence happened to be just at
the end of the Sunny Meadow where the railroad ran through the "cut,"
and the noise of the cars made her nervous.

Ducky Waddles was glad that the Old Duck Pond was still safe. He had
heard how it had just escaped being bridged over for the noisy cars.

Yes, everyone kept away from the railroad track except Goosey Lucy. And
why Goosey Lucy liked to waddle down the steep bank and along the hard
wooden logs of the roadbed no one could find out.

But one fine day Goosey Lucy got caught. Yes, sir. Before she could get
off the track the train came along. It was very narrow between the two
steep banks, and she couldn't fly high enough to reach the top. Cocky
Doodle and Henny Penny shut their eyes. They couldn't bear to see what
was going to happen.

But Goosey Lucy wasn't such a goose, after all. She sat perfectly still
between the rails, and when the train had passed over her, she got up,
shook the cinders off her white feathers and waddled back to the Old
Barnyard!

SCHOOL

"COME, get your cap, I'm going to take you to school today!"

Little Jack Rabbit was too surprised to answer--he just opened his
mouth, and the only sound his mother heard was a funny little noise like
a whistle.

"Don't you hear me?" she asked, tying the strings of her Sunday bonnet
under her furry chin.

"Whew!" said the little rabbit at last recovering from his surprise.
"Why do you want me to go to school?"

"Because all the Shady Forest grown-ups think it's a good thing to have
a school for the children," and she gave her bonnet a push and pulled
on her black silk mitts.

"Get your cap. Every mother will be there for the opening day, and we
mustn't be late."

The little rabbit hopped silently along by his mother's side, wondering
how it had all happened so suddenly. He hadn't heard a word about a
school, nor had any of his playmates.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked at last.

"Because we didn't want Grandmother Magpie to k