noon
What are you laughing at ? '' `` I was n't laughing , '' said the wife , angrily ; and , in truth , it was not she , but little Brownie , running under the barrow which the Gardener was wheeling along , and very much amused that people should be so silly as to squabble about nothing . It was still early morning ; for , whatever this old couple 's faults might be , laziness was not one of them . The wife rose with the dawn to feed her poultry and collect her eggs ; the husband also got through as much work by breakfast-time as many an idle man does by noon . But Brownie had been beforehand with them this day . When all the fowls came running to be fed , the big Brahma hen who had watched the ducklings was seen wandering forlornly about , and clucking mournfully for her young brood -- she could not find them anywhere . Had she been able to speak , she might have told how a large white Aylesbury duck had waddled into the farmyard , and waddled out again , coaxing them after her , no doubt in search of a pond .