But Tommy did not like to do this, for he fancied that taking it out would give him still more pain; however he was ashamed to say so, and went into the house and told his mamma what had happened. "You see, Mamma," said he, "that I was not afraid of thrusting my hand into the gooseberry-bush." Poor Tommy knew he was a coward, and therefore he was very glad when he had any thing which he thought courageous to boast of. "I think it would have been better if you had been afraid," replied his mother. "There is always danger of being pricked, at least by thorns, when you put your hand into a gooseberry-bush, and you should never run into danger when there is no reason for it." "Well, now let us look at this finger," and she brought her needle for the purpose of taking out the thorn. At sight of the needle poor Tommy's courage was all gone, and instead of holding out his hand he ran off to the farthest corner of the room, and it was not without some difficulty that she got him to consent to have the thorn taken out. When this was done, and he found the pain entirely gone, he thought he had been very foolish to make such a fuss about it, for the pain of taking out the thorn had been very short, and now it was all over, and he should have felt quite happy if he had not been ashamed of his cowardice. At night he slept in the same room as Willy, and in the morning he was awakened by the crowing of the cocks, and he wanted Willy to get up that he might go and see them in the poultry-yard. Willy said it was too early, and that he must turn about and go to sleep again; but Tommy remained awake listening with delight to the noise of cock-a-doodle-do, cock-a-doodle-doo. By and by he heard another noise, and he could not conceive what it was; it sounded like beating somebody, and he was sadly frightened, thinking perhaps they might come and beat him. But he was ashamed to awake Willy, who had fallen asleep again, lest he should again laugh at him for his cowardice. So he lay awake, trembling with fear, till Willy awoke. He then asked him what the noise was, and Willy burst out laughing when he saw how frightened Tommy was. "But are they not beating somebody very hard?" cried Tommy. "No," replied Willy; "they are beating some thing, not some person." "Well! but they must hurt it very much: I wonder you can laugh so." "Dress yourself quickly, and come and see what it is, and then you will laugh too." As soon as they were dressed, Willy took him to the barn, and there they saw four men threshing corn.