2o6 



have dreamt that with a good grass plot a father 

 Turquoisine would he such an idiot ? I felt as 

 melanchoh^ as if I was editor of a comic paper. 



The other nest went on all right, and one fine 

 morning I had the pleasure of my first sight of a bab}^ 

 Turquoisine. For days I had been 'fair' miserable, 

 and as day after day went by and no youngsters 

 showed themselves, the performance was lifted into 

 what is called at the theatre, a situation of suspense. 

 Imagine then my joy when one fine morning I found 

 four little beauties awaiting my advent. They looked 

 all eyes, like the audience in a Vaudeville, with their 

 little sober suits of green, and just a suspicion of blue 

 over the beaks. Would you believe it ? they proved 

 to be four hens, and as I realized this I felt like a lad 

 I knew whose mother had just had an increase that 

 morning. ' It's come,' he said, as he met me, ' it's a 

 girl.' Then with a burst of righteous indignation, 

 ' Fancy all the trouble for nothing ! ' 



Still even four hen Turquoisines are not to be 

 despised, and I soon managed to get mates for them, 

 and for some years I was never without the species. 

 Then not knowing what was coming I sold them all, 

 and w^hen now I want to get some I find it utterly 

 impossible. I shall expect to get some more when I 

 see snow in August. I see my mistake now clearly 

 enough, but when we have learnt to see our mistakes 

 it is too late to mend them. 



And now I feel I had better stop, or you will be 

 saying to me what the late Dean Hole once said to 

 Dr. Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury, who was 

 coming to Rochester to address a Temperance meeting 

 but fell asleep in the train, and was carried on many 

 stations before he found out his error. ' Ah,' said 

 Dean Hole, ' I'm not at all surprised, Mr. Dean, you 

 teetotallers never do know when to stop ! ' 



