6 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUE FAHM. 



with watering teeth, will wonder how ever we can con- 

 sume them 1 and do they not come in convenient now, 

 to ease the butcher's bill ? and don't they help to swell 

 the farm profits by being content to fatten on the 

 trough of steamed decaying potatoes, just thickened 

 with a pinch of barley-meal ? It is worth while hearing 

 how we saved so many. The plan is at once so simple 

 and effective. It was thus : We let the old ducks 

 make their nests where they would, under the heaps 

 of fire-wood and hedge-clippings that we had carted 

 and thrown down along the edge of the pool, purposely 

 at once to serve as fodder for the oven and to supply 

 shelter from the fox — both two and four legged — to 

 the brooding ducks. Of a sudden there were several 

 missing at their morning and their evening feed. Anon, 

 some would appear at odd hours, but with so earnest, 

 bustling a demeanour that one had not the heart to 

 scold them for their want of punctuality. And it paid 

 us for our charitable intention in giving them an extra- 

 ordinary meal, when one morning, passing by the pool, 

 our attention was caught by the plaintive wailing of a 

 duckling, as though in distress. We stop to listen and 

 look : when we notice he has dropped from the bank 

 above, as his brother just drops in our view, and sets 

 up at once an involuntary wailing, as though, human- 

 babe-like, he appreciated not as he should his sudden 

 morning wash. Gradually the lot drop out, and at last 

 the fond parent herself flies down with a splash, having 

 for a while most faithfully devoted herself to the 

 hatching of her due complement of eggs, regardless 

 of her infants' cries below, until at length she makes 

 up her mind to follow, despairing of the vitality of the 

 one surviving egg. 



