COUNTING THE CHICKENS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2135, 28 December 1880, Page 3

COUNTING THE CHICKENS.

The “ Danbury News ” man says that “ the reason people count their chickens before they are hatched is because it is easier. Mr Benson, on Grafton street, found a dead hen back of his bam Saturday morning. He suspected it was one of his fowls, but he was not certain, and the way to ascertain, he thought was to count his flock, which numbered sixteen. He gathered them together with a few flakes of cold pancakes, and then commenced counting: “ One, two, three—four, five——six—seven - two, three, four, five six seven, eight —, nine ten ——, eleven—pshaw! One, two, three, four four four goodness gracious! One, two —three,four five, six seven—seven—seven thunder and lightning! One, two, three one, two, three, four, five, six six, seven -eight—nice ten, eleven elev—blast ye, stand still! One, two —two— two, three four four—four—four — O ye will, will ye ? ye will, ye will, ye will ?’ he suddenly screamed, choking with passion, and jumping up and down in a perfect ecstacy of rage. Then he dove after a olothespole and bore down on the frightened and fleeing hens like a whirlwind, scattering the yard with feathers and filling the air with the shrieks of the crazed bipeds; and never cessed the attack until every hen was out of eight. He don’t know yet whether that hen is his.”