THE EDUCATIONAL HUMANE SOCIETY 



109 



reallv I'm not in the least, though 1 am 

 such a handsome, brown eyed Scotch 

 terrier, a regular lady killer, and be- 

 longing, as I do, to that famous Scotch 

 race, the Aberdeens ; but the word 

 'Scotch' attached to your name is 

 enough to make a dog famous, when 

 you realize that all over the world the 

 thousands and thousands of humans 

 who never ask for anything but 

 "Scotch." But notwithstanding all 

 this knowledge, I am not, not in the 

 least, conceited. 1 hope to have my 

 handsome face and form photographed 

 shortly for you, but 1 inns: cut this 

 short or you will get tired reading it. 



With all good wishes for 1910, and 

 love without end, I am, 



Forever yours, 



"Jo." . 



A Goose Affinity. 



BY Jo] IN C. I llKLATB, GLENBR00K, CO XX. 



Fast summer I purchased four goose 

 eggs, which we put under a trusting 

 hen. After the prescribed weeks of 

 incubation, she found herself, to her 

 surprise, the happy mother of two gos- 

 lings whose very interesting history I 

 am going to relate in the following : 



The two goslings developed into a 

 pair of very handsome geese, one of 

 them a snow-white gander and the 

 other a gray goose. In the early 

 spring, they, apparently, became very 

 fond of each other and their wedding- 

 took place in the month of March. The 

 first setting of eggs, which mamma 

 goose laid we took away and confided 



to a Plymouth Rock hen. The second 

 setting, she concealed very cleverly 

 behind an old wheel, and she is trying 

 to raise a brood of her own. During 

 the time that she was doing her family 

 duties and sitting on her own eggs, her 

 husband, whom we have since named 

 Earl, had made a very close acquaint- 

 ance of a large 1'ekin duck, and was 

 promenading around, going to the 

 pond, etc., daily, with his new affinity. 

 I do not knowr whether his wife was 

 at first aware of this flirtation ; but 

 recently, she seems to have been quite 

 reconciled, and now, whenever she 

 wants to get off duty, she utters a 

 series of peculiar sounds and the affinity 

 duck waddles as quickly as she can 

 towards the nest, has a friendly con- 

 versation with the goose, who joins 

 her husband for an hour or two of 

 frolic on the pond while the duck takes 

 her place on the eggs. Sometimes, the 

 duck and goose are both sitting on the 

 eggs, to the great chagrin of Mr. Earl, 

 who is trying all his charms to get 

 either one away from their duty of 

 brooding, and when he succeeds his 

 joy and satisfaction are very apparent. 

 As far as my observations have gone, 

 the love between the gander and duck, 

 is merely platonic. The question has 

 arisen in my mind whether the acquies- 

 cence of mother goose to her husband's 

 affiliation to the duck is a natural 

 instinct from many generations of 

 polygamous ancestry, or whether 

 merely the close proximity of wicked 

 New York, where such affinities are 



INK OKAY GOOSK OX HER NEST HACK OF THE WHEEL 



