The black hen was settin' on them, but I drove her away, and you can hear her cackling.

She then walks slowly round the hall and the adjoining rooms, throwing handfuls of straw on the floor and imitating the cackling of a hen, while all the children follow her peeping with their lips as if they were chickens cheeping and waddling after the mother bird.

Instantly, both the geese and the chickens turned and stared at the boy; and then they set up a fearful cackling.

Thus I go out into the passageway and give my horse his oats, throw corn and stalks to the pigs and a handful of grain to Harriet's chickens (it's the only way to stop the cackling!).