Cherry did as she was bidden; Budd listened intently.
"By cracky! there 's one!" he exclaimed. "Here, help me set this hen back again, and keep that one out."
"What for?" queried Cherry, forgetting her former lesson.
"Oh, you ninny!--here, listen, will you?" Budd put the egg to her ear.
"Why, that's a chicken peeping inside. I can _hear_ him," said Cherry, in an awed voice.
"Yes, and I 'm going to let him out," said Budd, triumphantly.
"But then you'll have the prize chicken, Budd," said Cherry, rather dubiously, for she had wanted it herself.
"Of course, you goosey, what do you suppose I came out here for?"
demanded Budd.
"But, Budd, will it be fair?" said Cherry, timidly.
"Fair!" muttered Budd; "it's fair enough if it's out first. It's their own fault if they don't know enough to get ahead of us."
"Did you think it all out yourself, Budd?" queried Cherry, admiringly, watching Budd's proceeding with wide-open eyes.
"Yup," said Budd, shortly.
They were not far from Hazel's hiding-place, and, by raising her head a few inches, she could see the whole process.
First Budd listened intently at one end of the egg, then at the other.
He drew out a large pin from his pajamas and began very carefully to pick the shell.
"Oh, gracious, Budd! what are you doing?" cried Cherry.
"What you see," said Budd, a little crossly, for his conscience was not wholly at ease.
He picked and picked, and finally made an opening. He examined it carefully.
"Oh, thunder!" he exclaimed under his breath, "I 've picked the wrong end."
"What do you mean?" persisted Cherry.
"I wanted to open the 'peep-peep' end first, so he could breathe,"
replied Budd, intent upon his work. Cherry watched breathlessly. At last the other end was opened, and Budd began to detach the shell from something which might have been a worm, a fish, a pollywog, or a baby white mouse, for all it looked like a chicken. It lay in Budd's hand.
"Oh, Budd, you 've killed it!" cried Cherry, beginning to sniff.
"Shut up, Cherry Blossom, or I'll leave you," threatened Budd. Just then the moon was obscured by a passing cloud, and the loft became suddenly dark and shadowy. Cherry screamed under her breath.
"Oh, Budd, don't leave me; I can't see you!"
There was a soft rapid stride over the flooring; and before Budd well knew what had happened, he was seized by the binding of his pajamas, lifted, and shaken with such vigor that his teeth struck together and he felt the jar in the top of his head.
As the form loomed so unexpectedly before her, Cherry screamed with fright.
"I 'll teach you to play a business trick like this on us, you mean sneaking little rascal!" roared March. "Do you think I did n't see you creeping out of the room along the side of my bed on all fours? You did n't dare to walk out like a man, and I might have known you were up to no good!" Another shake followed that for a moment dazed Budd. Then, as he felt the flooring beneath his feet, he turned in a towering passion of guilt and rage on March.
"You 're a darned sneak yourself," he howled rather than cried. "Take that for your trouble!" Raising his doubled fist, he aimed a quick, hard blow at March's stomach. But, somehow, before it struck, one strong hand--not March's--held his as in a vice, and another, stronger, hoisted him by the waist-band of his pajamas and held him, squirming and howling, suspended for a moment; then he felt himself tossed somewhere.
He fell upon the hay under which Hazel had taken refuge, and landed upon her with almost force enough to knock the breath from her body. Cherry, meanwhile, had not ceased screaming under her breath, and, as Budd descended so unexpectedly upon Hazel, a great groan and a sharp wail came forth from the hay, to the mortal terror of all but Chi, who grew white at the thought of what might have happened to his Lady-bird, and, unintentionally, through him.
That awful groan proved too much for the children. Gathering themselves together in less time than it takes to tell it, they fled as well as they could in the dark,--down the ladder, out through the barn, over the grass-plat, into the house, and dove into bed, trembling in every limb.
"What on earth is the matter, children?" said Mrs. Blossom, appearing at the foot of the stairs. "Did one of you fall out of bed?"
Budd's head was under the bedclothes, his teeth chattering through fear; likewise Cherry. March assumed as firm a tone as he could.
"Budd had a sort of nightmare, mother, but he 's all right now." March felt sick at the deception.
"Well, settle down now and go to sleep; it's just twelve." And Mrs.
Blossom went back into the bedroom where Mr. Blossom was still soundly sleeping.
Meanwhile, Chi was testing Hazel to see that no harm had been done.
"Oh, I 'm all right," said Hazel, rather breathlessly. "But it really knocked the breath out of my body." She laughed. "I never thought of your catching up Budd that way and plumping him down on top of me!"
"Guess my wits had gone wool-gatherin', when I never thought of your hidin' there," said Chi, recovering from his fright. "But that boy made me so pesky mad, tryin' to play such a game on all of us, that I kind of lost my temper 'n' did n't see straight. Well--" he heaved a sigh of relief, "he 's got his come-uppance!"
"Where do you suppose that poor little chicken is?"
"We 'll look him up; the moon 's comin' out again."
There, close by the nest, lay the queer something on the floor. "I 'll tuck it in right under the old hen's breast, 'n' then, if there 's any life in it, it 'll come to by mornin'." He examined it closely. "I 'll come out 'n' see. Come, we 'd better be gettin' in 'fore 't is dark again--"
He put the poor mite of a would-be chicken carefully under the old hen, where it was warm and downy, and as he did so, he caught sight of the rag hanging over the edge of the nest. He looked at it closely; then slapping his thigh, he burst into a roar of laughter.
"What is it, Chi?" said Hazel, laughing, too, at Chi's mirth.
"Look here, Lady-bird! you 've got the Prize Chicken, after all. That boy could n't tell green from blue in the moonlight, 'n' he 's hatched out one of yours. By George Washin'ton! that's a good one,--serves him right," he said, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes.
The chicken lived, but never seemed to belong to any one in particular; and as Chi said solemnly the next morning, "The less said on this Mountain about prize chickens, the better it 'll be for us all."
X
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
It was a busy summer in and about the farmhouse on Mount Hunger. What with tending the chickens--there were four hundred and two in all--and strawberry-picking and preserving, and in due season a repetition of the process with raspberries and blackberries, the days seemed hardly long enough to accomplish all the young people had planned.
Mr. Clyde came up for two days in June, and upon his return told Doctor Heath that he, too, felt as if he needed that kind of a cure.