A Hen on her Eggs.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2033, 18 July 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Hen on her Eggs.

An 1 .ih 1 this time I've f,'ot, I thin!;, just live, Whita aa the moon upon an August night. I lon,i to see the contents well alive, Eor those chicks, etill unborn, are my delight. My eldest egg — now let me pause and ccc : He'll be a valiant rooster-bird, of course, Haviug the grace of the ail&ntus tree, A linnet's voice, the brute strength of a horse. My i'ceond, I must very fondly dream, Will be a poule de hurts, and very wise ; She in linguistics will be held suprome, And she will learn the idiom of the flies. That third, delioious, speckled egg of mine Will bring me forth the handsomest of males, With military genius, I opine — A fowl the foe of garden slugs and snails. That other there— that dotted little dear — Will cause my poor maternal mind ie<jret ; For sue will be, I positively fear, The wayward Cleopatra of ray set. But, ah I the one that has a beauty mark Bight on the top, from Duty ne'er will quail ; She, Chriitian-like, will suffer in the dark And be the chickens' Florence Nightingale. So B^ing, the hen clucked loudly in her joy, And waved her wingd upon tho unhatched egg" '. Bnt then appeared a stalwart poultry-boy, With squinting eyes and odious crooked legs I He seized her offspring right before her eyea, Took the three beat, the onea she prized the most. And, to the mother's infinite surprise, Vanished around the corner like a ghost ! And, while Bhe hurried after him to say, " Spare, spare my children, and be ever blest!" A weadel, who had seen no food that day. Happened to tramp along, and suck the rest. — Cupid Jonet.