Henrietta Hen's heart began to thump1. She dropped a bit of cabbage out of her bill, letting it fall as if it burned her. And usually she was very careful as to her table-manners. "Goodness!" she said to Jimmy Rabbit, who was busily munching2 cabbage in Farmer Green's garden. "You frighten me!"
He had just asked her this strange question: "Did you ever hear it said that eating too much cabbage causes long ears?" And Henrietta Hen didn't want long ears. She knew they would be sure to spoil her beauty.
Jimmy Rabbit had no time to say anything more to Henrietta Hen. Although he had not finished his luncheon3 he left the garden suddenly—and in great haste. For old dog Spot began barking just beyond the fence; and Jimmy Rabbit always wanted to get as far from that sound as he could.
When Spot scurried4 into the cabbage-patch a little later Henrietta Hen called to him.
"What is it?" he asked her impatiently. "I'm in a great hurry. I don't like to stop."
"This is a very important matter," said Henrietta Hen. "Do you like cabbage?" she demanded.
"Cabbage?" he repeated after her as a puzzled look came over his face.
"You needn't act so surprised," Henrietta told him coldly. "You didn't come running into the garden for nothing. And I have reason to believe that you intended to eat some of Farmer Green's cabbages."
"What's your reason?" old Spot inquired.
"You have long ears," said Henrietta.
"Nonsense!" cried Spot. "What a person eats doesn't make his ears either long or short."
"Are you sure of that?" Henrietta Hen wanted to know.
"I've never eaten cabbage in all my life," he declared.
Still she couldn't rid herself of her fears.
"Perhaps," she said, "if you had eaten it your ears would have grown twice as long as they are now."
He shook his head. "I don't think so," he muttered.
&nb............