darkness.

"I never did see anything like it," I answered, while only one of the
Leghorn ladies gave a sleepy cluck of assent to their part of the question.

I really did have a thrill of pure joy in that old barn. It wasn't like
anything I had ever seen before, and was as far removed from a garage as is
a brown-hearted chestnut burr from a soufflé of maroons served on a silver
dish. I could hear the moth-eaten string of steeds munching noisily over at
one end of the huge darkness, and the odor that arose from their repast was
of corn and not of suffocating gasoline. Tall weeds and long frames with
teeth in them, which gave them the appearance of huge alligator mouths
yawning from the dusk to snap me, pressed close on each side. Straps and
ropes and harness were draped from the beams and along the walls, and the
combined aroma of corn and hay and leather and horses seemed an inspiration
to a lusty breath.

"There, sweeties, is a nice smooth bin for you to go to bed on," said Adam
as he set the Ladies Leghorn one by one from his arms on the edge of a long
narrow box that was piled high with corn. "Now you stay here with them
until I bring the rest. Put your Golden Bird down beside the biddies, and
I'll bring the others to put on the other side of him to roost, and in the
morning he can begin scratching for a happy and united family." With which
command Pan disappeared into the purple darkness and left me alone in the
snapping monster shadows with only the sleepy Golden Bird for company. The
Bird shook himself after being deposited beside the half-portion of his
family, puffed himself up, sank his long neck into his shoulders, and
evidently went to sleep. I shivered up close to him and looked over my
shoulder into the blackness behind the teeth and then didn't look again
until I heard the soft pad of the weird leather shoes behind me.