134 FIVE ACRES TOO MUCH. 



&quot; Walk, of course ; what do you mean by talking 

 to me in that way 2&quot; 



&quot; I don t mane any thing at all, at all, but I can t 

 get the eggs unless your honor pulls down the barn. 

 The old spalpeen has settled herself right under the 

 middle of the nure, and meself spied her out through 

 the cracks.&quot; 



Sure enough, there she was. Utterly regardless of 

 all the attractive boxes and imitation eggs, she had 

 crawled away where only a rat could follow, and 

 where a rat would, in the end, be sure to follow her, 

 and had made her nest under the centre timber of 

 the barn floor. There were two ways of reaching 

 her either by digging a tunnel such as our prison 

 ers made at Libby, or by taking up the planks. As 

 both of these modes would have cost somewhat more 

 than the eggs were worth, even supposing she was a 

 Black Spanish and not a Dominick about which, I 

 confess, I occasionally had some doubts we never 

 enjoyed more than a dim view through the dirty 

 cracks of our &quot; hidden treasures.&quot; 



This, however, was rather encouraging; another 

 hen might conclude to lay, and might select a more 

 eligible situation. It was a difficult matter to get 

 under the barn, and the next one might not be wil 

 ling to take the trouble, even for the satisfaction of 



