OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



"Yes, that 's a good idea. I '11 take a selection up 

 there the next time I go that way." 



"Perhaps we may hear of somebody else who would 

 like them," went on the tender-hearted man, for he saw 

 a certain fixed resolve appearing in my eye. 



"Well, there '11 be plenty to give away if that 

 emergency arises ; but I think we 'd better try eating 

 a few of them." 



"They 'd be so little," he protested. 



"We '11 call them pigeons and have one apiece." 



But they were not nearly so small as that. Be- 

 tween four and five months old, weighing about a 

 pound and a half, hung a week in the ice house, fat, 

 tender, juicy, with a faint gamey flavor, they were a 

 feast for the gods! Here was our reward, here our 

 justification. Let the bantams have their own way, 

 let them increase and multiply, we have learned how 

 to enjoy them, now full well we know their gastronomic 

 value. 



We even contemplated bestowing a medal on that 

 persistent little hen who on the seventeenth of October 



no 



