He asked me if they was good to eat. I spit and made a face and took on,
to scare him, but he just looked like he was smarter'n me and put 'em back
in his sack and walked off.'
Grandmother looked up in alarm and spoke to grandfather. `Josiah, you
don't suppose Krajiek would let them poor creatures eat prairie dogs, do
you?'
`You had better go over and see our neighbours tomorrow, Emmaline,' he
replied gravely.
Fuchs put in a cheerful word and said prairie dogs were clean beasts and
ought to be good for food, but their family connections were against them.
I asked what he meant, and he grinned and said they belonged to the rat
family.
When I went downstairs in the morning, I found grandmother and Jake packing
a hamper basket in the kitchen.
`Now, Jake,' grandmother was saying, `if you can find that old rooster that
got his comb froze, just give his neck a twist, and we'll take him along.
There's no good reason why Mrs. Shimerda couldn't have got hens from her
neighbours last fall and had a hen-house going by now. I reckon she was
confused and didn't know where to begin. I've come strange to a new
country myself, but I never forgot hens are a good thing to have, no matter
what you don't have.
`Just as you say, ma'm,' said Jake, `but I hate to think of Krajiek getting
a leg of that old rooster.
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