RAISING CHICKENS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1239, 28 August 1875, Page 17

RAISING CHICKENS.

(By the Danbury Newsman.) Harder still than breaking a hen from setting when you don't want her to, is to make her set when she doesn't want to. A lien always has been, and always will be, a mystery to man. She exasperates him by pretending to pick solid chunks of nutriment from the smooth side of a board, and she jeopardises his reason by her unblemished obstinacy and unvarying contrariness,

We are reminded very forcibly of this by the recent experience of the man across the way. He has no bens of his own, but one of the neighbours has several, and one of the number showed a marked indication, a short time a«o, to build up a family. About the same time he hoard of a party in Bethel who had a lot of choice eggs from a new and remarkable breed of hens. The owner of the hen didn't want to set it, as he had all the poultry he could oare for, and needed what eggs he could get, and had no money to experiment with fancy stock. These facts coming to the man across the way, gave him an idea. He was very anxious to have a lot of hens, and he thought he would buy the eggs and borrow the neighbour's hen, He said he couldn't tell half the time when he was getting good eggs from the store, and, if he only had hens of his own, he would be sure of fresh e<™s every day. This suggested to his wife the awful affair with the cow two years ago, and she told him he ought to remember that dreadful experience. "Ah, yes ; but then, my dear, a cow ia a much different animal from a hen. A hen don't kick, of course, and it is absurd to believe that a hen would tear down a fence,, rip up shrubs, and smash down a whole hot-house in one afternoon. Beside, you know, there's no churning and back-breaking in preparing eggs for the table. Those hens can play around the yard, and eat the scraps from the table, and it won't, cost a penny to keep them, besides being a great help and good company. I shall take pleasure, and so will you, in looking at them, and when you come to sit down to a platter of nice fresh eggs to breakfast, you will look upon it as I do." That settled it. He saw the owner of the hen, and told him what he wanted, and that he would return the animal in due time, and also four chickens from the brood. The offer was promptly accepted. Then he bought sixteen eggs for four dollars and eighty cents, and set the hen in a box in the woodshed. The next day he learned that the moon lacked two days of being at the right quarter for assisting an incubating hen, so he removed the eggs until the proper time. The day after, he was somewhat put back to learn that an even number of eggs would prove disastrous to the enterprise, so he took out one of them and smashed it. He was now all I right. Everything moved smoothly, and he was highly elated. Three times a day lie looked at the hen. And there she sat, < as comfortable as could be, with the everbright eye shining steadily and unflinchingly. About ten days later, when he came home to tea, his son said :—: — " Pa, the hen was off again this afternoon. " "Well, what of it?" " Why, Aunt Mary says if it stays off too long the eggs will get chilled. And it was off an hour this afternoon, and I drove it back in the shed, and it went back on the nest. And, by gracious, I had the greatest time getting it to go back into the shed, although the door stood wide open all the time."

In further proof of his zeal, the lad rolled up his pants and displayed a shin which had carried him unexpectedly over an ash-pail, and which looked as if it had been used to tack down a carpet. "You musn'fc run the hen, William ; that's the way it gets excited, and don't know where it is going," said the father. The next day at noon she had been off the nest two hours. William volunteered to go out and drive her in with a picket, but his father rebuked him for his unseemly haste.

He found the hen in the yard partaking of a hasty lunch from the label of an old peach can. William followed him out. The man across the way gently approached the animal, mildly enunciating ; —

"Chickey, chickey, chickey." The hen moved off. The man across the way moved after her. She kept going ; so did he. Thus working about, he got her near the door, with her head pointing in. Then he suddenly swooped down towards her, and she flew away to one side, and gained the garden again. " Ho, ho, ho !" said William, explosively.

" What's that, young man ?" savagely demanded his father, turning around upon him.

But William was frowning heavily at a board in the fence, and did not hear the question. The hen was again approached, and pretty much the same performance was gone over again, excepting that William didn't ho, ho, ho, aloud. The man across the way then put after her on a run, the most foolish thing he could have done. The chase grew exciting. William brought his picket to bear, but was ordered into the house so boisterously that he retreated at once.

"Oh, ma!" he shouted, "come out and see pa chase Mickle's hen. He's going round the garden like a circus hoss. Come quick." And she did come. The hen was apparently on the point of passing through the door a3 she appeared in it, looking helplessly arnmd. That was the last feather. The inflamed man lost all control of himself.

"Go back oufcof that door,"he screamed, " or I'll put a bullet right through you," "Mercy help us," cried the horrified woman, as she precipitately retreated. But the hen was out in the garden again, with both wings down, neck elongated, and cackling at the top of her voice. The man across the way put after her again. He caught up a clothes-pole, and a piece of coal, and an oyster-shell, and a stone, and a frozen potato on the way. He followed her around the out-buildings, under the waggon, over the stoop, across the grass, through the soft ground. Finally he caught her, aud restored her to the nest The next day she stayed abed all day, and he got his clothes mended. The third day she came off again, and showed no disposition to return. The man across the way heaved a sigh, and took off his hat and coafc, and put after her again. He stepped on the side of his foot in the third round, and seriously wrenched it. He then followed on the extreme end of the toes of that foot, which hardly improved his speed, but added considerably to the spectacular effect. But he got her, although he was laid up four days with his lame ankle.

Finally the specified time passed away, and, with a triumphant roar, the hen came off with, her brood, The man across the way rushed out in an ecstasy. All the troubles and annoyances he had undergone were forgotten in a flash. With feverish haste he counted the brood. There were four of them. Just four, and they were very pretty. But the man across the way simply sank down on the chopping-block, covered his face with his hands, and groaned with all his capacity.