He went by the road with the tea and I ran around to the lane and up to
the stable. Uncle Peabody met me there in a moment and brought a pail of
water and washed my face so that I felt and looked more respectable.

"If Aunt Deel asks ye about them scratches you just tell her that you
and Hen had a little disagreement," said my uncle.

She didn't ask me, probably because Uncle Peabody had explained in his
own way, and requested her to say nothing.

The worst was over for that day but the Baynes-Wills feud had begun. It
led to many a fight in the school yard and on the way home. We were so
evenly matched that our quarrel went on for a long time and gathered
intensity as it continued.

One day Uncle Peabody had given me an egg and, said that there was a
chicken in it.

"All ye have to do is to keep it warm an' the chicken will come to life,
and when the hen is off the nest some day it will see light through the
shell and peck its way out," he explained.

He marked my initials on the egg and put it under a hen and by and by a
little chicken came out of the shell. I held it in my palm--a quivering,
warm handful of yellow down. Its helplessness appealed to me and I fed
and watched it every day. Later my uncle told me that it was a hen chick
and would be laying eggs in four months. He added:

"It's the only thing it can do, an' if it's let alone it'll be sure to