The Hen Parade

Part One · The Hen Parade

Every July, Rosa and her little brother Hugo stayed a week at Grandma's farm. Grandma had five hens, and each one had a name. There was Pepper, Daisy, Clover, Dot, and Pickle. Pickle was the bossy one. She pecked the others off the best spot in the sun.

Rosa had a job, and that job was to feed the hens. Hugo had a job, too. His job was to shut the gate. Hugo was four, and the gate was his favorite thing on the farm. He liked to stand on the bottom bar and swing out over the lane.

In the middle of the week, there was going to be a picnic. Aunt Lena and the cousins were coming at noon. Grandma was in the kitchen with flour up to her elbows. "Go feed those hens," she called, "and keep them out from under my feet." So Rosa got the can of corn.

The hens came out of their little house in a row. They scratched in the dirt and made soft, happy sounds. Rosa threw corn in big handfuls. Hugo climbed onto the gate and gave it a push. The gate swung out wide, and it did not swing back.

Pickle saw the open gate first. She walked through it like she owned the lane. Then Dot went, and then Daisy, and then all the rest. Rosa dropped the corn can and ran. "Shut the gate!" she yelled, but by then there was nothing left to shut in.

Hens do not like to be chased, and Rosa learned that fast. Pepper ran into the bean rows, and Daisy went under the porch. Dot flapped up onto the wood pile. Clover just ran in circles, making a noise like a squeaky door. Pickle stood in the lane and looked right at Rosa.

Hugo stood by the gate, and his lip was starting to shake. "I did it," he said, and Rosa wanted to say yes, you did. But she looked at his face, and she did not say it. "The gate did it," she said, "so help me get them back." Hugo wiped his nose.

Rosa remembered what Grandma did at feeding time. Grandma sang a silly song about a hen in a hat. The tune went up and down like a wobbly fence. The hens came running, and Rosa knew every word. But Rosa did not sing in front of people, not ever, not even on birthdays.

A car came up the lane, slow, with dust behind it. It was Aunt Lena and the cousins, and four faces looked out at the hen in the lane. Rosa felt her cheeks go hot, but she picked up the corn can and shook it. Then she took a big breath.

She sang. She sang the hen in the hat song as loud as she could. Pickle lifted her head, and Dot hopped down off the wood pile. One by one, the hens came out of the beans and out from under the porch. They walked toward the corn can in a wobbly line.

Rosa walked backward through the gate, shaking the can, and the hens followed her in like a small parade. Hugo sang too, loud and wrong, with his own words. A cousin got out of the car and joined in, and then Aunt Lena did. When the last hen was inside, Hugo shut the gate.

Grandma had come out onto the porch with flour on her nose. "Well," she said, "they never once did that for me." The picnic was lemonade and cherry pie on a blanket under the big tree. The cousins wanted the hen song three more times, and Rosa sang it three more times.

At the end of the week, an odd thing happened. Every time Rosa walked past the gate and said good morning, five hens came running. They thought it was the start of the song. So she sang it for them, every time. And Hugo held the gate shut with both hands, just in case.