"Yes!" said Neighbor Number 2. "And I don't blame you for feeling as you
seem to. A week is a long time for everybody here--except me."

Henrietta Hen didn't understand her.

"I'm going to win the first prize--with my chicks," Neighbor Number 2
announced. "Of course _that's_ worth waiting here a week."

"I don't see how _you_ can win the first prize!" Henrietta exclaimed.

"Why not?" demanded the other. And she pressed against the wire netting
of her pen and stuck her head through it as far as she could, as if she
would have pecked Henrietta had she been able to.

"Because--" Henrietta explained--"because the lady on the other side of
me is going to win it."

"Who said so?"

"She did," Henrietta answered.

"Ha! ha!" cackled Neighbor Number 2. "That's a good joke. She hasn't any
more chance of winning than--than _you_ have!"

Now, Henrietta Hen couldn't help being puzzled. But whoever might win the
first prize, she was sure it couldn't be she. Hadn't her neighbors on
either side of her the same as told her that she couldn't win?

Henrietta would have felt quite glum, except that she couldn't very well