The Golden Bird

ces," he answered with more of t

ds go to the devil on Fridays," I ret

ile that was even more interesting than the laugh. "Come over and sit with me by the spring-house and let

e another swine and muffin meal," I answered as I foll

es that were sending out a queer fragrance to a huge old stone spring-house from which gushed a stream of water. "Just these two spring days are bringing out the locu

east and breathed in deep, "I'm glad, glad I didn'

the bushes upon one of the huge slabs of rock before the door of th

ered as I crouched down beside him on the leaves and began to munch at the apple, which

rs that, I think, were dog-biscuits, I told him all about it, up to my defi

a little closer to him on the rock, for black shadows were coming in between the trees and into my cons

hearts of women?" said Adam, softly answering my question wit

you do, and I'm going to get in line with my egg-basket when the United States begins mustering in forces to fight, no matter what it is

d kind Adam, with one o

born all over, and it is hard,"

p," he answered as he took my hand in his warm one for a second. "Let's go finish up with ol

s I for the second night fell asleep on the so

from their thirty-fifth to eightieth years is to sigh, look wise, and make

ng to answer straight out from the shoulder, "Well, it wou

many ways it pruned and probed into my innermost being with a searching knife to see if I really did have any intelligence or soul, and at all times it left me with a feeling of j

hat no matter how much awful dust and cobwebs you swept and mopped out or how much old furniture you polished until it reflected your face, it was all perfectly futile unless the bed-sunning ceremony had been first observed? Just how were the a

polishing before a single bed had been beat and aired." As she spoke Mrs. Addcock surveyed my house, upon which I had spent every waking moment of my muscular strength, assisted by Polly Corn-tassel and sometimes Bud of the blue eye

nd help me do it to-day?" I pleaded as I picked up a small Tillett, who was peeping soft wooing

year you'll know," she answered me with indulgent compromise in her voice. "And I guess we'll find some broom

g living-room to admire them. Mrs. Tillett's utility costume was of blue checked gingham and had no lines at all except top and bottom, with a belt in between. Both ladies wore huge gingham aprons, and I must say that they looked like the utility branch of the feminine species while I may have resembled the ornamental. But they were dear neighbors, and the Tillett baby and I had a very busy and happy day with the Golden Bird and his busy family while the two missionaries did over every bed in Elmnest, even invadi

ns are two pounds heavier than any born within a week of them at Plunkett's," Pan had said not

g feed-basket and the lamb

on and London, had not, in my new life, in any way aided me to see that I had made a mistake in ordering a three-hundred-egg incubator to start building a prize flock with Mr. Golden Bird and the ten Ladies Leghorn, but in this case Adam had guided me from off that shoal, and by telegram I had changed the order for three fifty-egg improved metal mothers an

een of the pearls. Adam had kept the poor old darling covering some white china eggs for nearly two weeks before he gave her the pearls on the same day we put the forty-five

box is a half-way measure for a hen, just as cleaning house without bed-sunning is trifling," said M

ken kind," said Mrs. Tillett, as she cuddled Baby Tillett gurglingly against her shoulder and f

for corn in one of my huge pockets, and a baby collie, which Pan had brought the week before, when her e

ird," I said as the great big, white old fellow came and peck

t have been a tragedy if Bess Rutherford's practical sense had no

r when they want to. She says she believes eternal vigilance is the price of success with poultry as the book she bought, which is different from mine, says, and Bess decided that she wanted her chickens where she could go in to see them comfortably when she came from parties and things without having to go around in the back yard, which is the most lovely garden in Hayesville anyway, in her slippers and party clothes. "I'd sell her the chicks at twenty

ns and two nice brotherly roosters, and they had almost caught up with me in the number of their brown babies on the whole shells. Matthew had been coming out night and morning ever since he had brought out his and the Beesleys' poultry and had either had supper with us at Elmnest or we had both got riz biscuits and peach preserves and chicken fried with Aunt Mary and Uncle Silas and Polly and Bud. I had subjugated Rufus into cooking a few canned things, for which I had traded one of his pig jaws at the bank-post-office-g

ttention from me that I don't know how I'll amount to anything in this world. He says it takes a very fine and brainy woman to earn about ten thousand dollars a year being affectionate and agreeable to her own father, and that I get so much because there is no possible competition as I am an only

ecause I knew that I couldn't have made myself believe all I had l

derful and sympathetic that Owen Murray sulked dreadfully. He encouraged me entirely and told me a lot of things about some of his experiment stations in all the different States. You thought you were going to stagger me with that twenty-dollar price on those chicks in shell, but he said he had paid as much as five hundred dollars apiece for a few eggs he got from some prize ch

solar plexus and crinkled me entirely up. "Oh, Bess, I forgot to fill the lamp in the incubator to-night, and I

after the war broke out and we didn't know whether we were in it or not? Come on, quick!" Bess seized the quilt from the bed and descende

as the frosty Spring air poured ar

t around you,

ens in it," she answered as we scut

el warm to the hand," I said as I knelt

, and they'll soon wa

the place. I forgot

d she inherited from Mr. Rutherford running over the speed limit, and as

, answering herself with almost a wail in her voice. "What will we do? The book says A

the cuddle of the cold lamb babies against it, there r

s. We are just as warm as the hen, and I'll get Rufus to go for Polly at daylight to fix the lamp while w

Bess, with the deepest admiration in her voice. "L

nd I were in the middle of the four-poster, sunk deep into the feat

s commanded as we got a

illett sleep with her cold

ponsibility of human life like that," Bess answered a

answering when I trailed off into a dream of walking a tight rope over a million white eggs. In the morning Bess