SEPTEMBER 23: The Homesick Chicken
“Now one of Mrs. Turkey’s children,” commenced daddy, “had been stolen by a great big rat. So Mrs. Turkey said to herself: ‘I think I will take a chicken and look after it. Mrs. Hen won’t mind. She has so many to look after as it is. It will probably be a great relief to her to have one less.’
“Mrs. Turkey talked on in this way and she called the chicken she liked best.
“‘Come here to me,’ she said, and she tried to make her voice sound as a Mother Hen’s would sound.
“The little chicken came running to the side of the turkey and seemed to be quite happy and contented. The turkey fed the chicken when she fed her own children and she looked after him all day long.
“But when evening came and the turkeys were ready to go up to the tree to roost as they always do when night-time comes, the poor little chicken wished he had not left his own mother.
“‘I was very bad to leave my mother,’ he whispered in a fretful little voice.
“‘Come on up the tree,’ said Mrs. Turkey, who had reached the topmost branch. ‘I am ready to go to sleep and all the turkeys are. We want to put our heads under our wings. We are very sleepy.’
“‘But I can’t get up there,’ said the chicken.
“‘Try,’ said Mrs. Turkey.
“The turkey children began to laugh at the poor little chicken who couldn’t fly to a branch of the tree.
“‘Gobble, gobble, gobble,’ they said. ‘Can’t you fly?’
“And the little chicken stayed on the ground below looking very unhappy.
“‘We can’t keep awake any longer,’ said the turkey children.
“‘Go to sleep, my loves,’ said their mother. ‘You are good children and know how to roost in a tree and have a good night’s rest.’
“‘I could roost and have a sleep too,’ moaned the chicken, ‘if you’d come down low.’
“‘Now this is annoying,’ said the Mother Turkey. ‘Didn’t I give you good things to eat and look after you all day?’
“‘Yes,’ said the chicken.
“‘And didn’t I let you play with my splendid children?’
“‘Yes,’ said the chicken again.
“‘Well, can’t you be grateful and come to bed like a good chicken. Show you are fine enough to belong to a turkey family.’
“‘But I don’t want to belong to a turkey family! I am a chicken and I am used to the ways of chickens. I wish I were back home.’
“‘Well, go home then, you little silly,’ said Mrs. Turkey. ‘It’s the last time I pay a compliment to a chicken by asking to bring him up as one of my own. You’re not able to fly up to this branch. Shame!’
“‘I’m very thankful for the pleasant day you gave me,’ said the chicken politely, ‘but I really must be going now. For I’m just a little bit homesick and I want my Mother Hen.’
“Here the chicken began to cry, and from a short distance away the turkeys heard a ‘cackle, cackle!’
“Along the ground half walking and half flying as best she could, came the Mother Hen.
“‘Ah, here you are, my naughty chicken,’ she said, but so happy was she to find her child that she didn’t scold any more.
“‘Oh, take me home to the chicken roost,’ said the little chicken.
“‘Yes,’ said the Mother Turkey. ‘I do not care for your child.’
“‘You had no right to take him away,’ said Mother Hen. ‘If you weren’t so high up I’d thrash you with my wings.’
“‘I’m afraid you couldn’t in the first place,’ said Mrs. Turkey politely, ‘and in the second place you should be glad I’m ’way up here, because your child couldn’t fly this far and so got homesick.’
“‘Oh, I’ll never leave home again,’ said the chicken as he reached the chicken roost, which was just right for him. And the Mother Hen cackled a happy ‘Good Night.’”