ted, and ready to brave
any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more
than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family.

"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I
will repeat to you. We called it

CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER.

'Scratch! scratch!
In the garden-patch,
Goes good Mother Henny;
Cluck! cluck!
Good luck! Good luck!
Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny!

A worm! a worm!
See him squirm!
Who comes first to catch it!
Quick! quick!
Chicken Dick,
You are the chick to snatch it!

"Peep! peep!
While you creep,
My long legs have won it!
Cuck-a-doo!
I've beat you!
Don't you wish you'd done it?"

Dick! Dick!
That foolish trick
Of bragging lost your dinner;
For while to crow
You let it go,
Bob snatched it up--the sinner!

Bob! Bob!
'T was wrong to rob
Your silly little brother,
And in the bush
To fight and push,
And peck at one another.

But Bobby beat,
And ate the treat.--
Dear children, though you're winners,
Be modest all;
For pride must fall,
And braggers lose their dinners.'

"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit
he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to
be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the
meadow-bank.

"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows
on both sides of the river, and creeping into cellars and yards and
houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure
where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for
refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood
soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated
slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of
wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the
shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the
foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet
gathers in its course.

"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a
fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full
height of his few inches, flapped his wings, and crowed--not once or
twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill
'Cock-a-doodle-d