DEFORMED, TRANSFORMED. 31 
place of any suggestion of a more active form 
of disease. 
I continued my labors, holding it at intervals 
,at arm's-length and looking at it with my head 
on one side, after the manner of great artists. 
In half an hour the cause of its death could 
not have been guessed by the most skilful coroner, 
but the fact of it stood out in every line of its 
form, and penetrated each particle of its down. 
It glared at me from eyes that would be glass, 
and reproached me from claws that would look 
rigid. 
Its presence became unendurable, and I was 
about to put it suddenly beyond the reach of 
mortal ken when Mrs. Maxwell asked : 
“ Why ! what’s the matter with you ? You look 
the picture of disgust ! ” 
“ Humph ! I shouldn’t think you’d ask ! Look 
at that chicken ! ” 
There was a poorly suppressed laugh in her 
eyes as she took it from me, with the remark : 
“ Oh ! can’t you make it come to life ?” 
The idea of her asking such a question ! after 
watching all my efforts in that direction ! 
“ ‘ Come to life ! ’ I’m ready to affirm it never 
had any to come to — that even the egg it came 
from was a china one ! Look at the horrid 
thing ! ” 
She was looking at it — and giving it a little 
