But she was willing to pass the time of day with Ebenezer, because he let
her walk right into his stall and pick up tidbits that had dropped upon
the floor beneath his manger.

It was on such an occasion, on a summer's day, that he said to her with a
sigh, "Haying's going to begin to-morrow."

Henrietta Hen remarked that she wasn't at all interested in the news.
"And I don't see why you should sigh," she added. "Goodness knows you'll
eat your share of the hay--and probably more--before the winter's over."

"It's the work that I'm thinking of," Ebenezer explained. "They'll hitch
me to the hayrake and Johnnie Green will drive me all day long in the hot
hayfields. I always hate to hear the clatter of the mowing machine," he
groaned. "It means that the hayrake will come out of the shed next."

Henrietta Hen caught her breath.

"The mowing machine!" she gasped. "Is Farmer Green going to use the
mowing machine now?"

"Certainly!" said Ebenezer. "I hear he's going to harness the bays to it
to-morrow morning."

"My! my!" Henrietta wailed. "Isn't there any way I can stop him from
doing that?"

"I don't know of any," Ebenezer told her. "I've often felt just as you do
about it. There's nobody that dreads hearing the mowing machine more than