Never in all her life had Henrietta Hen seen so many hens and roosters and chicks as she found on every side of her, at the fair. Farmer Green and his son Johnnie had set her pen in the Poultry1 Hall. And to Henrietta's surprise, none of her new neighbors paid much attention to her and her chicks—at first. She soon decided2 that there was a reason for this neglect. She made up her mind that she would have to make herself heard amid all that uproar3 or the others would never know she had arrived.
Luckily Henrietta had a strong voice. She used it to the utmost. And it wasn't long before a huge hen in a pen next hers gave her a bold look and asked, "What are you here for?"
"I've come to get the first prize," Henrietta answered calmly. She had listened carefully to what Farmer Green and Johnnie had said to each other during the journey from the farm. And already she knew something about fairs.
Her new neighbor laughed right in Henrietta's face.
"I don't see how you can win the first prize," she said with a sniff4. "I'm going to get the first prize myself. There never was another such fine family as mine." She glanced proudly at her chicks as she spoke5. "The best you can hope for," she told Henrietta, "is the second prize. And you'll be lucky if you get the third."
For once Henrietta Hen was at a loss for a retort.
"I don't believe you've ever been at a fair before," her new neighbor observed.
Henrietta admitted faintly that she hadn't.
"Last year I won second prize," said the other. "I'd have had the first if the judges had know............