Chapter XV 



FREAK scientist declares 

 birds taught men to speak. 

 Whether or no he is right, 

 it is a fact that chickens 

 talk. Even very little 

 chicks, just out of the shell, 

 have three separate manners 

 of speech. Cold, hungry, or lost, they utter 

 a shrill, piercing peep, oft-repeated and con- 

 tinuous, until they are either comforted or 

 exhausted. But this shrill crying can change 

 all in a wink to a soft wit-twit-wit, intensely 

 full of satisfaction. Sleepy, chicks tell their 

 mothers or keepers of the fact with a gurgling 

 yeepl-leepl-lp, yee-epl-lee-epl ! When they 

 cry thus in the brood, if the mother persists 

 in tramping about instead of hovering them, 

 the biggest and boldest of the flock springs 

 upon her back, and tries to huddle down 

 there, though he is physically certain to 

 topple ofF the next minute. Sometimes two 



