Dog and Hen
Now I have a funny story for you of a dog and
a hen which a friend told me that she knew to be true.
A small dog had a litter of puppies in a barn close by a hen
who was sitting on her eggs, waiting patiently, as hens do,
for the time when her chickens should pop their pretty heads
out of their shells into this pleasant world.
The puppies, however, came first, and, as soon as they were
born, she left her nest, and insisted upon brooding them.
The little dog, no doubt, thought her very impertinent, and
barked at her, and tried to drive her away; but she would not
go. They had always been good friends, and the dog was
unwilling to hurt her; and so Mrs. Dog, after showing, in
every way, her desire to get rid of her troublesome
acquaintance, and finding that Madame Hen would not budge one
inch, let her alone.
From that time, the hen brooded the puppies. She let their
mother suckle them, but the rest of the time took charge of
them. The poor dog mother felt cheated, but she went off and
amused herself as well as she could.
The poor chickens never showed their heads outside of their
little oval prison, for they missed the gentle warmth of their
unnatural mother's wings."
"She was a real funny hen," said Frank; "but she could not
have had much brains, not even so much as common hens, and
that's little enough; but, as for the dog, she must be as lazy
as Dick Doolittle, to be willing to have such a stupid nursery
woman as a hen take care of her own puppies. Dick lets Tom
Jones do all his sums for him, but then he never hides it, so
we only laugh at him. He says, What's the use of being named
Doolittle and yet have to do much?
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