The Rooster was glad it was not lighter in the henhouse, for he felt
himself flushing hotly.

"You must pardon me," he said. "I had no idea it was you, for you waked
me out of a sound sleep."

"Sound sleep, indeed!" Henrietta Hen exclaimed with a sniff. "Why, you
had been crowing only a few moments before. In fact it was your crowing
that roused me."

"No doubt!" said the Rooster. "But you see, I fell asleep again
immediately."

"Then you must be ill," Henrietta retorted, "for I've never known you to
go to sleep again, once you've begun your morning's crowing."

"But it's not morning now," the Rooster informed her. "It's not even late
at night--certainly not an hour since sunset."

Henrietta Hen was astonished.

"I noticed that the night seemed short," she muttered.

The Rooster thought it a great joke.

"Ha! ha!" he laughed. And he said to the rest of the flock, with a
chuckle, "Henrietta thought it was morning! No doubt she'd have gone out
into the yard if the door hadn't been shut." And the other hens all
tittered. They always did, if the rooster expected them to.