"Suppose the critter was to die afore then," said the shopman,
"would you pay all the same?"

"To be sure," said Ned; and the bargain was settled.

The shopman advised him not to take the cock away before dark. Ned
agreed to wait till then. Just before his bed time, he went for
Chanticleer, and brought him as quietly as possible to the house. He
was afraid to put the new master of the poultry yard on the roost
with the old cock, lest they should fight in the morning; so he
carried his treasure softly up to his own bedroom in which was a
large closet where he had prepared a temporary roost. The cock, who
was very tame, as he had been always a pet, made no fuss, but went
to sleep on his new roost. So did Ned in his comfortable bed.

Now it so happened that this large closet was between Ned's bedroom
and that of his father who, as we have before mentioned, had been
seriously ill, and who particularly demanded quiet. All the first
part of the night the sick man had been tossing all out, very
uneasy, till about three o'clock in the morning, when he fell into a
sweet sleep. His wife, weary with anxiety and watching, was trying
to get a nap in the easy chair, when, suddenly, close by them, as if
in the very room, came an indescribable screech, an unearthly, long,
shrill cock-a-doodle-do yell, such as only a fancy feathered biped
can perform.

The poor invalid screamed with horror, and his wife would have
screamed too, had she not thought first of her dear patient.

In a moment, all the household had left their beds to learn the