<SPAN name="r1710" id="r1710"></SPAN>
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</SPAN></span>
<h2>XXIII</h2><h3>GETTING ACQUAINTED</h3></div>
<p>Not liking her neighbor on her right, at the fair, Henrietta Hen sidled
up to the wire netting on the opposite side of her pen. Peering through
it, she examined the person whom she saw just beyond, in a pen of her
own.</p>
<p>A very sleek hen was this, who gave Henrietta a slight nod.</p>
<p>"We may as well speak," she said, "since we're to live next to each
other for a week."</p>
<p>"A week!" Henrietta groaned. "Shall I have to stay cooped up here as
long as that?"<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Yes!" said Neighbor Number 2. "And I don't blame you for feeling as you
seem to. A week is a long time for everybody here—except me."</p>
<p>Henrietta Hen didn't understand her.</p>
<p>"I'm going to win the first prize—with my chicks," Neighbor Number 2
announced. "Of course <i>that's</i> worth waiting here a week."</p>
<p>"I don't see how <i>you</i> can win the first prize!" Henrietta exclaimed.</p>
<p>"Why not?" demanded the other. And she pressed against the wire netting
of her pen and stuck her head through it as far as she could, as if she
would have pecked Henrietta had she been able to.</p>
<p>"Because—" Henrietta explained—"because the lady on the other side of
me is going to win it."</p>
<p>"Who said so?"</p>
<p>"She did," Henrietta answered.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Ha! ha!" cackled Neighbor Number 2. "That's a good joke. She hasn't any
more chance of winning than—than <i>you</i> have!"</p>
<p>Now, Henrietta Hen couldn't help being puzzled. But whoever might win
the first prize, she was sure it couldn't be she. Hadn't her neighbors
on either side of her the same as told her that she couldn't win?</p>
<p>Henrietta would have felt quite glum, except that she couldn't very well
mope in the midst of the terrific racket all about her. Soon her
neighbors—both Number 1 and Number 2—were having loud disputes with
the hens in the pens on the further side of them. It seemed as if every
hen at the fair had left her manners at home—if she ever had any.</p>
<p>"Goodness!" Henrietta Hen murmured to herself. "If there's a prize, it<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</SPAN></span>
must be for the one that can make the most noise."</p>
<p>In a little while throngs of men, women and children crowded into the
Poultry Hall. They paused before the pens and looked at the occupants,
making remarks that were sometimes full of praise and sometimes
slighting.</p>
<p>Henrietta Hen felt terribly uneasy when people began to stop and stare
at her. She dreaded to hear what they would say. After the way her
next-door neighbors had talked to her she didn't believe anybody would
have a word of praise for her.</p>
<p>She soon heard all sorts of remarks about herself. Some said she was too
little and some said she was too big; others exclaimed that her legs
were too short, while still others declared that they were too long! As
these—and many similar—comments<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</SPAN></span> fell upon Henrietta's ears she
promptly decided that there wasn't anything about her that was as it
should be.</p>
<p>Having always called herself (before she left home) a "speckled beauty,"
she began to feel very low in her mind. And there was only one thing
that kept her from being downright sad. All the sightseers agreed that
she had some pretty chicks.</p>
<p>Henrietta couldn't help wishing that they had a different mother—one
that was worthy of them.</p>
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