Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/101

 so did the bearded goat, and the brindled cow, and the long-tailed horse, and the whiskered cat, but she was nowhere to be seen.

The young rooster lifted up his voice, flapped his wings, and crowed,

"Cock-a-doodle-doo, Dame Hen, now where are you?" "Cut-cut-cut-cut-cadah-cut, Cut-cut-cut-cut-cadah-cut!"

cried the bonny, wee white hen, running out to tell him of an egg she had laid in the long soft hay.

"Well done," cried Father Rooster, looking very proud of her; "our peeping chicks will soon be out of the shell."

So then they all knew the place would do, and they set about building the house of their own. The long-tailed horse cut down a tree for wood with his strong teeth, the bearded goat rubbed the edges smooth with his horns, the brindled cow carried the beams on her broad back and stood them up in place with her forelegs, the whiskered cat sprang up and down the beams and nailed them together, the young rooster gave the orders to everyone, and when the house was done the bonny, wee white hen swept it clean as a new pin.

Then they all moved in. And there they lived in this house of their own for a year and a day, and a