that was worthy of them.




XXIV

WINNING FIRST PRIZE


Henrietta Hen was waiting as patiently as she could for the fair to come
to an end. She tried to close her ears to the boasts of her neighbors on
either side of her, that they were going to win the first prize. She had
heard too many unpleasant remarks about herself to have even the
slightest hope of winning any prize at all--let alone the first.

"Anyhow, we'll be going home tonight," Henrietta said to herself. "And
I'll never, never, never come to another fair. I'll go and hide 'way up
high in the haymow where they can't find me before I'll spend another
week in a place like this."

While she was muttering under her breath like that some men came up to
her pen. And Henrietta Hen promptly squatted down in the furthest corner
of it, hoping they wouldn't say anything disagreeable about her. She felt
that she had already heard about all she could stand. She didn't even
look at her callers. And soon they moved away.

Then Henrietta glanced up. She noticed something blue dangling from the
front of her pen. And there was a greater commotion than ever on all
sides of her.