"I'll be back in a minute," he said to himself. "It won't hurt the chickens to wait a little while for their breakfast." Bunny was so interesting with her long ears and her wiggly nose, that Bobby stayed fifteen minutes, watching her. By that time, he had forgotten all about Old Speckle and the chickens. Next he went to a corner of the rail fence to see whether there were any more eggs in the robin's nest. He found four blue eggs. Then to the Duck Pond he went to see whether the little boat he had left there the day before was still there. It was. He sailed it eleven times across the pond. When he was through sailing the boat, he saw Rover coming through the orchard. "Hello, Rover," he said, "let's go to the barn." And they went down the lane to the Big Red Barn, leaving Old Speckle and the ten little chicks still unfed. "Why doesn't Bobby come with our breakfast?" thought the hungry little chicks. "Why doesn't Bobby come with our breakfast?" thought Old Speckle. "My poor little chicks will starve." Meanwhile the Big Rooster found the basin of meal and the basin of wheat. "What a nice breakfast!" he thought. And he ate it all up. When noon time came, the dinner bell rang. "Come, Rover," said Bobby. "Let's go up to dinner right away. It's a long time since breakfast." Perhaps it was because he was hungry that Bobby suddenly remembered something. Anyway, he began to run as fast as his legs would carry him and ran all the way up the lane, Rover at his heels. And, as he ran, he kept thinking, "A long time since breakfast! But the little chickens didn't have any breakfast at all." When he came to the spot where he had left the two basins, there the two basins were, but both empty. He looked over toward the chicken coop. There was Old Speckle walking back and forth, putting her head out between the slats every once in a while, and looking greatly distressed. There were the little chicks saying, "Peep, peep, peep," as they tried to find something to eat in the grass. Bobby took the basins into the house. "Mother," he asked, "did you feed the chickens?" "No," said she, "that is your chore, Bobby." "But how came the basins empty?" asked he. Mother could not answer. But at that very moment, the Big Rooster crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-doo! I had a fine breakfast." Mother stirred up another basin of meal while Bobby got some more wheat. He took them quickly to the chickens and threw the food into the coop. "Cluck, cluck, cluck!" Old Speckle called. "Peep, peep, peep!" cried the little chicks, as they came running to eat. Bobby watched them until it was nearly gone. "Now you feel better, don't you?" said he. "And I feel better, too," he added. Which was strange, wasn't it? For Bobby had not yet had his dinner. [Illustration: ROVER GOES TO THE STORE] X Rover was useful in many ways about the farm. Sometimes he even went to the village store on errands.