256 FIELD AND FERN. 



tree hard by the garden walk, and is insatiable in his 

 basket cravings when his mistress appears. A hen 

 and her chickens sit under every tree in the orchard, 

 but they are not brought there till they are past coop 

 estate, and the coops have been lime-washed and 

 put away for another summer. " The Monastery" 

 at the bottom of the orchard is a sort of mysterious 

 penthouse, with rows of perches on each side, and 

 tenanted at times by upwards of four hundred cock- 

 erils, from which the future public characters and 

 private sale birds are selected. The rest are either 

 eaten or sold round home, or put into the Edinburgh 

 winter draft. " The Nunnery" is also composed of 

 rafters, and contains pullets of every tribe and 

 kindred from one to five months. 



Here Annie in her white crazy appeared upon the 

 scene, and confessed her love for a little cannibal of a 

 Creve-Creur, as black as a sloe, which had just at- 

 tempted the life of an unoffending Chamois Pole. 

 She loved it for its very mischief, and when she had 

 called it "just an impudent little smout," she kissed 

 it fondly to make amends, and added in dark 

 speech that it was "feeding just like a little linty" 

 and " was able to keep its ain part.' 3 Even long after 

 roosting time her thoughts are with them, as she and 

 Kitty the girl knit, and roast the oyster shells. The 

 green, save and except the croquet-ground, is entirely 

 given up to chicken-coops during the season ; and 

 some of the coops are glazed Crystal Palace fashion. 

 The other houses are of quite an unpretending order; 



