such trouble. And perhaps it was just as well that Henrietta Hen had her
hands full looking after them and trying to keep them all under her eye,
and spick-and-span for the journey. Otherwise she would have been in more
of a flutter than she was.

While Henrietta had an eye on her children, she tried to keep the other
on the barn. And after what seemed to her hours of watching and waiting,
she saw Johnnie Green lead the old horse Ebenezer out of the door, with
his harness on. Henrietta promptly forgot her stately manners. She ran
squalling across the farmyard and called to Ebenezer, "Where are you
going?"

"I understand that I'm going to the fair," he told her, as Johnnie Green
backed him between the thills of a wagon. "Once I would have been hitched
to a light buggy, with a sulky tied behind it. But now I've got to take
you and your family in this rattlety old contraption."

Henrietta Hen didn't wait to hear any more. She turned and hurried back,
to gather her youngsters and bid everybody another farewell.

Amid a great clucking and squawking, Johnnie Green and his father put
Henrietta and her chicks into the pen and placed it in the back of the
wagon.

"We're all ready!" Henrietta cried to Ebenezer. The old horse didn't even
turn his head, for he could see backwards as well as forwards, because he
wore no blinders. He made no direct reply to Henrietta, though he gave a
sort of grunt, as if the whole affair did not please him. He knew that it
was a long distance to the fairgrounds and the road was hilly.