next Christmas dinner and when she wondered how he was to come by
them, he said mysteriously, "Oh, I will show you how," but did not
further explain himself. The next day he went with Tom Seymour and
made a trade with old Sam, and gave him a middle-aged jack-knife for
eight of his ducks' eggs. Sam, by-the-by, was a woolly-headed old
negro man, who lived by the pond hard by, and who had long cast
envying eyes on Fred's jack-knife, because it was of extra fine
steel, having been a Christmas present the year before. But Fred
knew very well there were any number more of jack-knives where that
came from, and that, in order to get a new one, he must dispose of
the old; so he made the purchase and came home rejoicing.

Now about this time Mrs. Feathertop, having laid her eggs daily with
great credit to herself, notwithstanding Mrs. Scratchard's
predictions, began to find herself suddenly attacked with nervous
symptoms. She lost her gay spirits, grew dumpish and morose, stuck
up her feathers in a bristling way, and pecked at her neighbours if
they did so much as look at her. Master Gray Cock was greatly
concerned, and went to old Dr. Peppercorn, who looked solemn, and
recommended an infusion of angle-worms, and said he would look in on
the patient twice a day till she was better.

"Gracious me, Gray Cock!" said old Goody Kertarkut, who had been
lolling at the corner as he passed, "ain't you a fool?--cocks always
are fools. Don't you know what's the matter with your wife? She
wants to sit, that's all; and you just let her sit. A fiddlestick
for Dr. Peppercorn! Why, any good old hen that has brought up a
family knows more than a doctor about such things. You just go home
and tell her to sit if she wants to, and behave herself."