Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper's Life Among the Herd Interior Layout

Chapter One
Before There Were
Elephants
1937–1962
Three-year-old Roger Henneous slid his hand into the warm
darkness beneath the last hen and drew out an egg. The chicken
glared with a beady, unblinking yellow eye and jabbed at him
with her beak. Snatching back his hand just in time, he carefully
placed the egg in his basket along with the others, then gave the
hen a retaliatory shove beneath her tail, sending her to the floor
of the coop in a feathery flop. As he reached for the last two
eggs, the bird struck again, pecking his legs through the denim
of his overalls as she clucked a storm of birdish invective.
Roger kicked at her and swore in return, displaying verbal
versatility unexpected in a child his age. He’d learned the
words by following his dad around the family farm, but even
at three the boy had sense enough to keep his voice low so
his mom wouldn’t hear. Backing away from the attack, boots
flailing, Roger exited the coop and slammed the door in the
chicken's face. Beneath an Iowa sky washed red with the rising
Melissa Crandall ◆ 21