44 THE MICROSCOPE. 



^(Utovinl Hcpurhncnt. 



IT WILL DO FOR BABES. 



IT IS a happy fact that we are not all constituted alike; for while 

 some people are always suited and see good in everything, 

 others are exactly the reverse. The members of the last class have 

 a dark outlook, for the present is unsatisfactory and the future full 

 of trouble and disappointment. These people are always unhappy, 

 for when they most desire the hen to do her part toward providing 

 the daily bread, she is sure to set ; and ducking, swinging, tying, a 

 dark box, a pan of water, all these only tend to aggrivate matters, 

 and at last the old hen is allowed to set in peace trying to hatch a 

 brood of Cochins from a cobble-stone. 



If this hen, having left her nest for food, should chance to meet 

 a'sister hen scratching away for the good of a fine chick, we 

 fancy she would turn away in disdain and would mutter to herself 

 thus; "The idea of that hen's making such a fuss over that chicken! 

 Its legs are crooked! It hasn't any fine feathers! Cant walk 

 straight! Cant cackle or crow! Just wait until my chicken is 

 hatched and I'll show you!" But a favorable opportunity will never 

 come for that old hen's cobble-stone to become transformed into a 

 chicken, and while she is croaking away, the producers are bring in 

 the results. You may call us the "old hen" if you please, but bear 

 in mind that this journal is our one chick. 



The other hen exactly represents to our minds a certain physi- 

 cian who thus expressed himself to a friend of ours: 



Friend. Have you seen "The Microscope?" 



Doctor. Yes. 



Friend. Have you subscribed? 



Doctor. No! And do not intend to either. 



Friend. Why, dont you like it? 



Doctor. Oh! // will do for babes. 



'I'he doctor evidently does not like our crooked-legged feather- 

 less chicken, but if he is not careful, the food our chick is getting 

 already, in the way of communications and dollars, is such that one 

 of these days it may actually flap its wings and crow. 



