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spoil or to be taken care of by some hen of humbler 

 spirit than her own. 



As no other eggs were provided for her, Little 

 Brown Hen chose her third brood for herself. 



And what do you suppose it was ? Three kittens 

 that had been deserted by their mother, and left 

 as poor little orphans in a box in the woodshed. 



There Little Brown Hen found thern. She sat 

 on the edge of the box for some time, looking curi- 

 ously at them as they squirmed and mewed below. 



Then her mind was made up. Down into the 

 box she hopped and tried to comfort the little 

 orphans with cozy mother sounds. 



The kittens were so young that their eyes were 

 not yet open. It hardly seemed possible they could 

 live after their mother left them. When the chil- 

 dren found, however, that Little Brown Hen had 

 adopted them as her brood, they made up their 

 minds to save them for her. 



So they took turns through the day in feeding 

 the kittens. They fed them from a bottle of 

 warmed milk with a rag stuck in the end of it for 

 them to suck. 



At first Little Brown Hen had half a mind not to 

 let us touch the kittens. She seemed to be afraid 



