FRAGMENTS. 379 



and lay struggling on its side. I walked forward to seize 

 it, muttering, " Well, if they haven't been poaching even 

 now." Up it rose again, apparently with the greatest 

 difficulty. But this time it was longer in doing the 

 tumble-down part. Suspecting the trick, I followed to 

 see how it would end. After enticing me some distance, 

 it sprang up with its easy natural motion, and triumph- 

 antly twisted out of sight. 



WHEN I lived at Lennie, my children set an old pea- 

 hen, long solitary, with some bantam eggs. Five came 

 out, and she proved so careful a stepmother as to rear 

 them all. Some knowing observers declared that her 

 long legs would walk them to death. Not so, for often 

 she carried the whole five on her back ; and if any one 

 seemed weak or flagging, she invariably took it up for 

 long together, as a good nurse would spare her sickly 

 child. When they were old enough to roost, she decoyed 

 them to the large boughs of some old tree, where they 

 continued to rest even during the long cold nights of 

 our northern winter. She tended them with great care 

 after they were quite able to shift for themselves, always 

 feeding them with any pieces of bread thrown to her. 

 The little bantams showed equal attachment to their 

 kind protectress ; and it was not till spring had far 

 advanced that they left her to join the other poultry. 



