1. Time passed on, and Betty grew fast in size and beauty. Her mistress made up her mind to send her to the Poultry1 Show at the Crystal Palace.
2. The cook and all who saw her said that Betty ought to go, her beauty was so great. She was quite a perfect pattern of what a white hen of her sort ought to be.
3. She would be certain to win a first prize of the first class, they all thought. Poor Betty! From the day that it was settled for her to go to the Poultry Show her troubles began.
4. When first it was made known in the yard she became rather vain, in spite of all that her mother could say. The[Pg 111] fact was that the old hen felt proud of it herself, and Betty knew it.
5. She would be always pluming2 the feathers of her daughter, cackling loudly, and calling to strange chickens to come and admire the lovely back and smooth wings of her child.
6. The young cocks from next door sat on the railings to chatter3, and even[Pg 112] forgot to quarrel. They stared at Miss Betty as she walked with her beak4 in the air, and they made rude remarks.
7. "Why don't you grow a pair of spurs and learn to crow?" they called out. When Mrs. Dorking, Betty's mother, heard these speeches from the young cocks she flew into a great passion.
8. "I will set the dog at you, you young scamps, if you do not be off this moment," cried she. So they dropped off one by one, for t............