A Fleeting Show of Hen.

Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 52

A Fleeting Show of Hen.

jj 1 tjn in a bailboad coach fob a box with . a Feated Coat. Not more than a dozen persons were in the tfar. These were a sharp-nosed man who i divided his time between glaring discon- j ,ientedly out of the window and asking the I conductor why the train didn't go iaster; an j elderly and benevolent-looking old lady who ' sat across the aisle from the sharp-nosed man ; j three or four men who lounged back in their j seats and dozed, and a quartet of young ! two men and two girls, who were amusing themselves by singing college songs, i As the train pulled out of one of the country | villages a poorly-dressed boy, who might have ! been 16 or 17 years old, came into the car and took the seat across the aisle from the four young people. Under his frayed coat I was a big bunch, suggesting that he was carry- ] Ing something concealed there. As the young i people struck into another song lie. looked ] anxiously at them and then down at the bunch j under his coat. Presently, at the end of a | yerse, there sounded quite emphatically from j Jfche coat this remark : j " Cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-cudawcut ! " j " Goodness ! " exclaimed the girl who had i been' singing the alto part, turning wide j brown eyes upon the youth. " He's got a hen there. Did you hear it?" " Cutta-eutta cudduck!" made itself sufficiently audible for everyone in the car to hear. , w " She's a good hen," said the boy, apologeti- j eally, " but she don't like music. I was scairt i that you'd wake her up." ! '' Cudduck cudawcut ! " in rather tart tones from beneath the- coat seemed to indicate that the good hen Avas tired of being good and /wanted to get out and fly round the car for a while for a change. "shuttup!" i said the boy, poking the bunch with no great gentleness, a performance which brought forth a wrathful cackle. . By this time all the people in the. car were Craning their necks towards the seat occupied fey the boy. The old lady put on her glasses to see better, and the sharp nose of the discontented man fairly glowed with indignant He pointed a bony finger at the place whence the hen language seemed to propeed. ' "Look here!" he said; "do you mean to Bay you've got a hen under your coat?" The youth turned a deprecatory glance Upon his questioner, but evinced no signs of Weaning to say anything. It wasn't really liecessarv that he should. '" Cluck-cluck, cul-luck, cul-luck, cuttacudawcut; " was the highly adequate reply. The sharp-nosed "man's proboscis spread its 'glow over his other features. , "It's an infernal shame! " he cried. "Ain't it!" exclaimed the benevolent old lady, "bestowing an approving glance upon him. /' I wouldn't wonder a mite if the poor ihing smothered." "Darn the thing!" ejaculated the man with such emphasis that the old lady's glasses Fell off in consequence of the shock to her system. "I ain't kickine- on the beastly ■> chicken's account. What I object to is that young idiot making a cattle train gi this DSU\.' '*

"Hens' ain't cattle," suggested the old lady, with evidently pacific intent; but, strange to say, this veracious and soothing statement failed to mitigate the complainant's wrath. _ i i " Might just as well be," he said. j ! " CTTDDTTCK, CLTJCK, CLUCK 1" { came in protest to this statement. i " Say, you," cried the man again, aiming his loaded forefinger at the youth. " What d you mean by bringing a hen into this car?" "What hen?" asked the boy innocently. " Don't you try to fool with me. That hen under your coat." He waggled his forefinger at the bunch, , which promptly responded: " Cut-cudaw-w-wcut ! " " Oh, that hen?" said the boy placidly. " I brought her along so's I could get a freshlaid aig for my lunch." The quartet across the aisle burst into laughter, and the sharp-nosed man swore J softly but comprehensively. j '" Don't you let him frighten you," said , the brown-eyed girl encouragingly to the boy. The benevolent old lady was so surprised at the boy's statement that her glasses fell off again, and as she groped for them she said in rather awestruck tones : " Goodness me ! Does he eat the egg raw?" " Yes'm," replied the boy politely. " Kaw aigs is the only kind thid lien knows how to j lay. I had a hen at home we used to feed .' on sulphur matches, and she laid hard-boiled ! aigs, but the other day she drank some kerosene oil an' just naturally busted." "I don't believe it," exclaimed the old lady quite violently, and the quartet almost ' collapsed with glee. . : A 100k 1 of sadness overspread the plain features of the youth, but before he could reply to this aspersion upon his veracity, the bundle , under his coat attracted his attention, as well i a<! that of everyone else, by observing in ie- j sonant tones :_ " CUTTA-CtTTTA-CtrTTA-CtFT-OUDAW-w-wcut! " " Keep still ! " cried the boy, administering a second poke to the covering coat. | '' The society that looks after cruelty to animals ought to be told," announced the old ! lady. " I know that hen's suffering." ' '" Hen ain't an animal," snapped the sharp- ' nosed "man, getting back at her for her previous information. " I know I'm suffering, and unless " ! "Well, the society might look after you, » then," retorted the old lady, with some as- I perity. "The aged person," observed one of the young men in the quartet, "is not so easy as she looks. That was distinctly the retort rotten." " I'll speak to the conductor," the sharp- ! i nosed man was declaring meanwhile. "I j ! didn't pay my money to ride in a hen-coop, j ' We'll see if this young- rascal can bring his I cackling chickens among decent people." ! " Cluck-cluck-cul-luck-cutta-cut," came in j rather derisive tones. The brown-eyed girl leaned out over the aisle and looked at the boy. j "Won't you please let me see the hen?" I she said. " JL d like to, miss, but I dassent," said the boy. ' ! "Do you think I'd frighten it?" she said \ \ reproachfully. ] { " No'm, but this, is an awfully intelligent j ] hen an' " — with a look of direct admiration — j j " like's not if she ones seen you she'd want | J t) leave me right now and never come back j n) more." \ "now, will you be good?"' i said the young man who sat with the girl. She smiled entrancingly at the boy " I don't believe you've got any hen at all," sh? said challengingly. In reply he prodded the bundle, which promptly replied : " Cutta-cut, cutta-cut! " "There did you hear it?" cried the sharpnosed man to the conductor, who had just i entered the car. " What kind of road do you I I call this, where the passengers have to roost with the chickens?" " Where is it? Which one's got it?" asked the conductor. « "Cutta-out! Cutta-cvit, cudaw-cut!" proclaimed clearly the location. "Look here," said the official, striding up to the boy, who was nervously fumbling at his coat, "I'vo got a mind to stop the train and fire you off right hero." " What for?" inquired the youth in injured , tones. " You've got my ticket." j " You throw that chicken out of the window i or get out." j " What chicken, mister?" " Under your coat there. Come, no nonsense, now. I won't stand for it." i The boy drew his frayed coat closer around the bundle. " TUCK-\-TUCK-\-TUCK," came in smothered tones from it. "Mercy! The poor thing's near dead," ciied the old lady. " What a shame! '' " Come, get out," ordered the conductor, taking the boy by the shoulder. The train was slowing down as it drew near a station, and the proprietor of the assortment of barnyard noises got up, remarking : " This is my station where I get off, anyway." "Cluck, cluck, cluck, tuck-a-tuck ! " evidenced the fact that it was the station where the bundle under the coat wanted to get off also. '• I should like to have seen what kind of a hen- that was," said the brown-eyed girl plaintively. The youth paused, turned, and looking directly into the brewn eyes, delivered himself fef this surprising remark:.

| .'"I'll cluck-cluck-cluck-tell you, miss. Just because I tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck-a-tuck a bundle under my coat-cudaw-cut, an' it cutta-cutta-cluckß like a hen, that don't cut-cut-cudaw-cut no ice. Looka here!". He threw open his coat, and behold! there wa3 nothing there but a PAIB OF SKATES fastened together with a strap. "Cluck, cluck, cluck, cutta-cutta-oufc;whur- ' rvck-a-doodle-doo-00-00-oo ! " he chanted triumphantly as he marched out of the car. I "He didn't haVe no hen at all I " cried lsie old lady, her surprise getting the better of her grammar.

The sharp-nosed man hastily went into another car, but not in time to escape hearing tho brown-eyed girl announce : "We will now sing that beautiful and highly appropriate hymn tune — ' This world is all a fleeting show, for man's illusion given.' " — New York Sun.

A Prince of Wales Story. Eere is a story about the Prince of Wales, iv told in a leading French paper. It is said to bo absolutely true, and to be now published for the first time. One ni^lit a few London policemen noticed that the door of a famous jeweller's store was half open, and, going in, they found themselves face to face with three burglars, who were on the point of breaking open the safe. A hand-to-hand fight at once took place, the result of which was that one burglar was captured, while the other two managed to dash out into tho street.

The police called loudly for assistance, and their cries reached a gentleman who happened to be passing by the store. He at once grappled with the two burglars, and after a sharp tussle managed to overcome one of them. He turned him over to the police, and was about to go his way, when the police rcpuested him to accompany them to the station, as they wished him to bear testimony to what had happened. The gentleman consented, and in a few minutes the party reached* the station. There the unknown champion of law and order was a*ked for his name, and to the amazement nf all he replied that he was. the Prince of Wales.