Chapter III: Preparation

Where they passed the night and what happened. A promise.

The main ideas tested. How did the little girl in “Stardollars” pass the night? Where do travelers usually stay at night?

Explain _inn_, _Innkeeper._

Narration.

AT THE INN.

Late in the evening they came to an inn; and because the duck was tired and the night dark, they drove up to the door.

The cock asked the innkeeper if they might stay over night. The innkeeper did not like their looks and said at first, “No, I have no room, and I think you have no money.” But the cock replied, “You shall have the egg that the hen has laid and the one the duck lays every day.” So the innkeeper consented. They all went in, ate their supper, and lay down to sleep.

The next morning, long before the other people at the hotel were up, the cock and the hen took the egg, broke it, and ate it together. The shell, however, they threw into the ashes in the fireplace. They then waked up the needle and the pin. The needle they stuck into the innkeeper’s chair and the pin into his towel. The duck, who slept in the yard, heard them stirring around and flew to the brook and swam away. The cock and the hen then hurried on to their home.

Suggestions.

Fireplace. How are our houses heated? Stoves, furnaces, steam, etc.

Was the promise kept? Describe the conduct of the cock and the hen.