"We can't stop here," said Blacky.
Alyosha followed the hen into the second room. He saw a beautiful gold cage. There was a big parrot in the cage. He was grey, and his tail was red. Alyosha wanted to come up to the cage at once. But Blacky didn't let him do it.
"Don't touch anything here," she said. "You can wake the old ladies!"
Only then Alyosha saw a bed near the parrot. On the bed there was a lady. Her eyes were closed. She looked very old. In another corner there was another bed with another old lady on it. And near her the boy saw a grey cat. Alyosha came up to her and said:
"Give me your paw. Can you do that for me?"
The cat started mewing loudly. The parrot cried: "Silly boy!" The old ladies opened their eyes and sat up in bed. Blacky ran out of the room. Alyosha followed her. They closed the door behind them. But they could still hear the parrot: "Silly boy! Silly boy!"
"That's bad," said the hen. "I'm afraid the knights are not sleeping now."
"What knights?" asked Alyosha.
"Please don't ask me any questions," said Blacky. "We must go now. Follow me. Don't be afraid."
They went downstairs and walked along the corridors. Some of them were very long, low and narrow. Then they came into a large hall. The hall had no windows, but there were three wonderful large lamps. Alyosha saw many portraits of the knights on the walls.
"Alyosha! Please, be quiet," said Blacky.
At the end of the hall there was a large door. Alyosha and the hen came up to the door. Suddenly two knights jumped off the wall and went to Blacky. At that moment the hen started growing. She became very big and tall. She was bigger and taller than the knights. Blacky started fighting with the knights. The hen was brave. But the knights were strong too. Alyosha didn't see the end of the fight because he fainted.
When he opened his eyes, it was morning. He was in bed. There was no Blacky and the knights. Alyosha thought about last night: "Was it real? Or was it a dream?"
The boy put on his clothes and went upstairs to have breakfast. He wanted to play in the yard after breakfast, but there was too much snow. So he didn't go out.
After dinner the headmaster's wife told her husband: "I can't find the black hen anywhere. But don't worry. We never get eggs from this hen. I think we can eat her for dinner some time."
Alyosha became very sad. In the afternoon he stayed in the classroom again. He couldn't stop thinking about last night. He wanted to see the hen.
"She is not in the hen-house. But I may see her this night again," he thought.