The next morning, he called Bobby to him. "I have a present for you," he said. "Come to the carriage-house and you may see it." "What is it like?" asked Bobby, as they walked along. "It is something that flies," said Father. "A bird," said Bobby. "Wrong," said Father. "A ball?" guessed Bobby. "No. One more guess," said Father. "I don't know anything else that flies," said Bobby, "except a butterfly." "How about a bumblebee?" asked Father. "Oh, Father, you couldn't catch a bumblebee," said Bobby. "And if you did, it would sting you." "How about a kite?" asked Father. "That would be grand," said Bobby. "Did you get one in the city?" "Look under the buggy seat," said Father. Bobby climbed into the buggy and reached under the seat and began to pull something out. "Why, it looks just like the tail to my kite," said he. "Why, it _is_ my kite," he shouted, as he saw his name on the cross-piece. "Where did you get it?" Father told him. "I'll tie the string together and fly it again," said Bobby. "You had better get some stronger cord," said Father. "I might not happen to find it if it flew away again." Bobby rode to the village when John went to the blacksmith shop. He went to Mr. Brown's store and bought a ball of strong cord. Then he ran all the way home with it, because he did not want to wait for the blacksmith to finish shoeing the horse. And it wasn't long before Bobby's kite had climbed high into the sky again. People driving along the road saw it and said, "What a fine kite!" Father saw it this time. As he was going down the lane, he stopped a few moments to watch it. Then he waved his hand to Bobby and started on. "I am glad it flew across my path," he said. [Illustration: THE OLD BROWN HEN] III In the Spring, at Cloverfield Farm, all the family made gardens and sowed seeds. Mother sowed pansy seed in a round bed in the side yard. When the little plants came up, she watered them and weeded them and kept the ground soft and fine, so they could grow. All the time she was tending them, she kept thinking, "How nice it will be to have all these lovely pansies to look at this Summer!" Father sowed some radish seed in the garden. When the little plants came up, he weeded them and hoed them and kept the ground soft and fine, so the little radish plants could grow. All the time he was doing it, he was thinking, "How fine it will be to have lots of good radishes for the table!" Bobby had a little corner all his own in Father's big garden. He sowed some onion seed in his garden. When the little plants came up, he weeded them and hoed them and kept the ground soft and fine, so they could grow. All the time he was doing it, he was thinking, "How nice it will be to have all these onions, so I can give them to Mother for the cooking!" One day, while the family were all away, the Old Brown Hen, who had stolen her nest, came along with her thirteen chickens.