noon
He then stepped over to a hated rival , and ate off about fifteen cents ' worth of his large , red , pompadour comb . He now remarked in a courteous way to a small Poland-China hen , who seemed to be at the head of all works of social improvement , that we were having rather a backward spring . Then he picked out the eye of another rival , much to his surprise , and went on with the conversation . By noon the bright scarlet rooster owned the town . Those who had picked on him before had now gone to the hospital , and practically the social world was his . He got so stuck up that he crowed whenever the conversation lagged , and was too proud to eat a worm that was not right off the ice . I never saw prosperity knock the sense out of a rooster so soon .