Then they divided what little
corn there was left, and went away.
"As to the mice they were left to whistle for their food.
"So ends the tale of the Hens of Hencastle."
"And a very fine tale too," said one of the stranger-hens who had been
asleep all the time, and woke up with a jump. "It was deeply
interesting." The threshers happened to have stopped to rest for a
moment, or she would never have woke at all.
"Of course it was!" said the cock, full of dignity; and he shook his
feathers straight.
"But what became of the fowls afterwards?" asked one of the common hens.
"I never tell a hen a secret," said the cock; and he strutted off to
hunt for worms.
FLAPS.
A SEQUEL TO "THE HENS OF HENCASTLE."
And what became of Flaps after they all left Hencastle? Well, he led his
company on and on, but they could find no suitable place to settle in;
and when the fowls recovered from their fright, they began to think that
they had abandoned the castle too hastily, and to lay the blame on
Flaps.
Mark himself said that he might have overestimated the number of the
invaders. There might not have been twenty-three, but really Flaps was
in such a hurry for the news, and one must say something when it was
one's duty to make a report.
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