Before it was near daylight I heard Laddie making the kitchen fire,so father got right up,Leon came down,and all of them went to the barn to do the feeding.I wanted to get up too,but mother said I should stay in bed until the house was warm,because if I took more cold I'd be sick again.At breakfast May asked father about when they should start for Deams'to be ahead of the chase,and he said by ten o'clock at least;because a fox driven mad by pursuit,dogs,and noise,was a very dangerous thing,and a bite might make hy----the same thing as a mad dog.
He said our back barn door opening from the threshing floor would afford a fine view of the meet,but Candace,May,and Miss Amelia wanted to be closer.I might go with them if they would take good care of me,and they promised to;but when the time came to start,there was such a queer feeling inside me,I thought maybe it was more fever,and with mother would be the best place for me,so I said I wanted to watch from the barn.Father thought that was a capital idea,because I would be on the east side,where there would be no sun and wind,and it would be perfectly safe;also,I really could see what was going on better from that height than on the ground.
The sun was going to shine,but it hadn't peeped above Deams'
strawstack when father on his best saddle horse,and Laddie on Flos,rode away,their eyes shining,their faces red,their blood pounding so it made their voices sound excited and different.
Leon was to go on foot.Father said he would ride a horse to death.He just grinned and never made a word of complaint.
Seemed funny for him.
"I was over having a little confidential chat with my horse,last night,"he said,"and next year we'll be in the chase,and we'll show you how to take fences,and cut curves;just you wait!""Leon,DON'T build so on that horse,"wailed mother."I'm sure that money was stolen like ours,and the owner will claim it!I feel it in my bones!"
"Aw,shucks!"said Leon."That money is mine.He won't either!"When they started,father took Leon behind him to ride as far as the county line.He said he would go slowly,and it wouldn't hurt the horse,but Leon slipped off at Hoods',and said he'd go with their boys,so father let him,because light as Leon was,both of them were quite a load for one horse.Laddie went to ride with the Princess.We could see people moving around in Pryors' barnyard when our men started.Candace washed,Miss Amelia wiped the dishes,May swept,and all of them made the beds,and then they went to Deams',while I stayed with mother.
When she thought it was time,she bundled me up warmly,and I went to the barn.Father had the east doors standing open for me,so I could sit in the sun,hang my feet against the warm boards,and see every inch of our meadow where the meet was to be.I was really too warm there,and had to take off the scarf,untie my hood,and unbutton my coat.
It was a trifle muddy,but the frost had not left the ground yet,the sparrows were singing fit to burst,so were the hens.I didn't care much for the music of the hen,but I could see she meant well.She liked her nest quite as much as the red velvet bird with black wings,or the bubbly yellow one,and as for baby chickens,from the first peep they beat a little naked,blind,wobbly tree bird,so any hen had a right to sing for joy because she was going to be the mother of a large family of them.A hen had something was going to be the mother of a large family of them.A hen had something to sing about all right,and so had we,when we thought of poached eggs and fried chicken.When I remembered them,I saw that it was no wonder the useful hen warbled so proudlike;but that was all nonsense,for I don't suppose a hen ever tasted poached eggs,and surely she wouldn't be happy over the prospect of being fried.Maybe one reason she sang was because she didn't know what was coming;I hardly think she'd be so tuneful if she did.
Sometimes the geese,shut in the barn,raised an awful clatter,and the horses and cattle complained about being kept from the sunshine and fresh air.You couldn't blame them.It was a lovely day,and the big upper door the pleasantest place.I didn't care if the fox hunters never came,there was so much to see,hear,and smell.Everything was busy making signs of spring,and one could become tired of ice and snow after a while,and so hungry for summer that those first days which were just hints of what was coming were almost better than the real thing when it arrived.Bud perfume was stronger than last week,many doves and bluebirds were calling,and three days more of such sunshine would make cross-country riding too muddy to be pleasant.I sat there thinking;grown people never know how much children do think,they have so much time,and so many bothersome things to study out.I heard it behind me,a long,wailing,bellowing roar,and my hood raised right up with my hair.I was in the middle of the threshing floor in a second,in another at the little west door,cut into the big one,opening it a tiny crack to take a peep,and see how close they were.
I could see nothing,but I heard a roar of dreadful sound steadily closing in a circle around me.No doubt the mean old foxes wished then they had let the Dorking roosters alone.
Closer it came and more dreadful.Never again did I want to hear such sounds coming at me;even when I knew what was making them.
