pering, "Jim Patterson, where's that hen?"

"Couldn't get her. Grabbed her, and all her tail-
feathers came out in a bunch right in my hand, and
she squawked so, father heard. He was in his study
writing his sermon, and he came out, and if I hadn't
hid behind the chicken-coop and then run I couldn't
have got here. But I can't see as you've got any
corn, Johnny Trumbull."

"Couldn't. Every single ear was cooked for din-
ner."

"I couldn't bring any cookies, either," said Lee
Westminster; "there weren't any cookies in the jar."

"And I couldn't bring the potatoes, because the
outside cellar door was locked," said Arnold Car-
ruth. "I had to go down the back stairs and out
the south door, and the inside cellar door opens out
of our dining-room, and I daren't go in there."

"Then we might as well go home," said Johnny
Trumbull. "If I had been you, Jim Patterson, I
would have brought that old hen if her tail-feathers
had come out. Seems to me you scare awful easy."

"Guess if you had heard her squawk!" said Jim,
resentfully. "If you want to try to lick me, come on,
Johnny Trumbull. Guess you don't darse call me