CHORUS [_Among blossoming branches._]

_Boom! Boom!

From bloom to bloom_!

THE TURKEY-HEN [_Lifting her bill._] A Chorus?

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Breezily._] The Bees!

CHORUS _Make distant flowers Bride and groom!_

THE TURKEY-HEN Wonders on every side!

THE GUINEA-HEN The Bees here, the Tsicadas yonder--[_To a pa.s.sing_ HEN.] How do you do?

How do you do?

BEES [_At the right._]

_Boom!_

CICADAS [_At the left._]

_Our praises!_

BEES _Boom!_

CICADAS _Our praises!_

THE GUINEA-HEN [_To the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] My garden produces the most remarkable of everything!

THE YOUNG GUINEA-c.o.c.k The brightest flowers!

THE GUINEA-HEN The big potatoes!

THE BLACKBIRD And peaches! Perfect peaches!

THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Inconvenienced by the movement and the crowd, to the_ BLACKBIRD.] Let us stand out of the crowd a moment, behind this watering-pot.

THE BLACKBIRD The watering-pot, alias the Intermittent Baldpate, so called because there flows from his copper scalp when he is tilted a marvelous growth of silver hair.

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Spying the_ CAT, _who, outstretched along an apple-bough is watching with half-closed eyes._] I have among my guests the Cat.

THE BLACKBIRD Tomkyns de Tomkyns! [_A_ BIRD _is heard warbling in a tree._]

THE GUINEA-HEN I have the Chaffinch!

THE BLACKBIRD Let him chaff inchworms, what care we?

THE GUINEA-HEN The Darning-needle!

THE BLACKBIRD She shall mend up Ragged Robin, now's his chance!

PATOU [_More and more disgusted._] All that is supposed to be funny!

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Pecking a cabbage leaf from which roll drops of dew._] I have the Dew!

PATOU [_Grimly._] Your witticism for her?

THE BLACKBIRD [_Brightly._] Fresh-water pearls!

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Pointing out several_ CHICKS _walking among the crowd._] Have you seen them? I have several of the A.I.'s Chicks!

THE PHEASANT-HEN A.I.?

THE GUINEA-HEN The Acme Incubator.

THE PHEASANT-HEN Oh, have you?

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Presenting the_ CHICKS.] All from the topmost compartment!

THE PHEASANT-HEN Indeed?

ONE OF THE CHICKS [_Nudging his neighbour._] She is dumbfounded!

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Contemptuously._] Eggs hatched by the old vulgar method, fie!

THE BLACKBIRD, Good Lord, exempt us!

THE MAGPIE [_Announcing._] The Guinea-pig!

THE GUINEA-HEN It's the famous one, you know! The Guinea-pig who was inoculated--surely you remember the case--very well, that's the one! There you see him. I made a point of getting him to come. Everybody is here! I have everybody! I have--[_To the_ GUINEA-PIG.] How do you do? [_To the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] I have our great philosopher Tur-Key--Yes, it should be written with a hyphen--who will give us a little talk among the currant bushes under the tea-roses--[_To a pa.s.sing_ HEN.] How do you do? [_To the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] Educational Tea or Currant Topics! [_Whirling from one to the other._] Everyone is here, everyone of the slightest mark or consequence! The Pheasant-hen is here, in a frock from fairyland. The Duck is here, who is so good as to say he will recite for us by and by.

The Tortoise is here--[_Noticing that the_ TORTOISE _is not there_] I was mistaken, the Tortoise is not here. She is late.

THE BLACKBIRD [_Affecting deep concern._] What is the little talk she seems so regrettably likely to miss?

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Suddenly serious._] The Moral Problem.

THE BLACKBIRD What a pity!

[_The_ GUINEA-HEN _goes to the back, scattering greetings, in ecstasies of sociability._]

THE PHEASANT-HEN [_To the_ BLACKBIRD.] Who is the Tortoise?

THE BLACKBIRD A hard old character, impervious, I fear, to moral problems, who goes in for walking matches in a loud check suit!

[_Murmur among the hollyhocks._]

THE PHEASANT-HEN Listen, a Drone!

THE GUINEA-HEN [_Briskly returning._] The Drone is here! In the bright light overhead, what a stylish figure of a fly!

THE BLACKBIRD No "at home" complete without it! Ladies cry for it! Won't be happy until--