262 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



to her, if I should offer her the means of having 

 chickens in plenty, and of procuring some for the 

 society. Her baking- oven seemed very fit for the 

 hatching of chickens, and I happened to be at 

 hand to make it serve to warm a chicken-stove ; 

 the monastery being near my house, and the oven 

 being in a poultry-yard, which makes it still more 

 convenient." Arrangements having been made 

 for the accommodation of a large number of eggs, 

 a tray containing a hundred was put into the 

 proper receptacle. " The charge of keeping them 

 in an equal heat of about 32 degrees (Reaumur), 

 was given to a very ingenious nun, who was sin- 

 cerely desirous to execute her commission well. 

 However, a first experiment happens so seldom to 

 have complete success, that I thought it very 

 extraordinary, that out of a hundred eggs she had 

 taken care of, above half of which proved to be 

 unfruitful ones, there should have been twenty 

 chickens hatched one day sooner than they would 

 have been under a hen. When the first of them 

 appeared, the nun to whom they were committed 

 and owed their life, was transported with a pleasure 

 that she could not contain; she directly ran to tell 

 this interesting piece of news among all the nuns, 



