till night came.

Cocky was much troubled, and didn't know what to do. He could not tell the
old lady about it; for he could only cackle and crow, and she would not
understand that language. So he went about all day looking very sober, and
would not chase grasshoppers, play hide-and-seek under the big burdock
leaves, or hunt the cricket with his sisters. At sunset he did not go into
the hen-house with the rest, but flew up to the shed roof over the
kitchen, and sat there in the cold ready to scare the robbers with a loud
crow, as he could do nothing else.

At midnight the men came creeping along; one stopped outside, and the
other went in. Presently he handed a basket of silver out, and went back
for the money. Just as he came creeping along with the box, Cocky gave a
loud, long crow, that frightened the robbers and woke the boys. The man
with the basket ran away in such a hurry that he tumbled into a well; the
other was going to get out of the window, when Cocky flew down and picked
at his eyes and flapped his wings in his face, so that he turned to run
some other way, and met the boys, who fired at him and shot him in the
legs. The old lady popped her head out of the upper window and rang the
dinner-bell, and called "Fire! fire!" so loud that it roused the
neighbors, who came running to see what the trouble could be.

They fished one man out of the well and picked up the wounded one, and
carried them both off to prison.

"Who caught them?" asked the people.

"We did," cried the boys, very proud of what they had done; "but we
shouldn't have waked if our good Cocky had not crowed, and scared the