About Six Little Chickens

: FIRST STORIES FOR VERY LITTLE FOLK
: Boys And Girls Bookshelf

BY S. L. ELLIOTT






A Mother Biddy sat on her nest, with what do you think in the nest? Six

smooth white eggs! After she had sat there quite a long time till she

was very tired, what do you suppose happened to one of those eggs? There

was a noise that went "snick, snick," and out of the shell stepped

something like a little fuzzy ball, but with two bright eyes, and two

bits of feet to wa
k on. What do you think it was? A little chicken?

Yes, and Mother Biddy was so glad to see it, and she called it "Fluffy."

And Fluffy said "Peep, peep! I have some brothers and sisters in the

shells; if you call them, I think they will come." So Mother Biddy said

"Cluck, cluck!" and something said: "Peep, peep!" and out came another

chicken, as black as it could be, so Mother Biddy called it "Topsy."

"Are there any more?" said Mother Biddy. "Yes. Peep, peep! We're coming;

wait for us," and there came four more little chickens as fast as they

could run. One was as white as snow, and Mother Biddy called it

"Snowball." The next was yellow and white, and she named it "Daisy."

Then there was a yellow one with a brown ring around its neck, and that

was called "Brownie." And what do you think! one was all black, only it

had a little white spot on the top of its head that looked like a cap,

so Mother Biddy called it "Spottie." Now they were all out of their

shells, and they said: "Peep, peep! We're hungry." So Mother Biddy said:

"Cluck, cluck! Come see my babies," and out of the house, close by, came

a little girl with some corn-meal in a dish, and my! wasn't she glad to

see the chickens?






After they had eaten all they wanted, they thought they would take a

walk and see this queer world they had come to live in.



Pretty soon they came to a brook, and they all stood in a row and looked

in. "Let us have a drink," they said, so they put their heads down,

when--



"Peep, peep!" said Spottie. "I see a little chicken with a spot on its

head."



"No, no," said Brownie; "it has a ring around its neck, and looks like

me."



"Peep, peep!" said Daisy. "I think it's like me, for it is yellow and

white." And I don't know but they would all have tumbled in to see if

they hadn't felt something drop right on the ends of their noses.

"What's that?" said Fluffy.



"Cluck, cluck!" said Mother Biddy. "Every chicken of you come in, for it

is going to rain, and you'll get your feathers wet."



So they ran as fast as they could, and in a few minutes the six little

chickens were all cuddled under Mother Biddy's wing, fast asleep.



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