Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-11-15
Yunrorous &ea0ing.
Breaking up a Setting Hen.

"IluVIny, Vuou Oil yo'iei neh . oS'''A
again." said Mrs. Hays to her son, one
morning at breakfast.
"Well, let her set" remarked Timothy,
helping himself to large piece of cheese,
81 reckon I can stand it as long as she car" I"
81 do wish you would try to be little
equinomical to cheese, Timothy; I've cut
the very last of my every day lot, and its
only the first of May. And now as soon as
you've done eating I want you to go out and
break up that hen. She's settling on an
old Ak and two bricks now"
81 hope she'll hatch 'em," returned Tim
othy.
eff she was set now, she'd hatch the
fourth week in May. It's bad sign;
something alters happens arter it. Stop
giggling, HELEN Maria, by the time you
get to be as old as yer mar, yell see further
than you do now. There was Jenkins folks,
their grey top-knot hatcbed the last of May,
and Mrs. jenkins, she had the conjunction
of the lungs, and would have died If they
hadn't killed lamb and wrapped her in
the hide while its warm. That was all that
saved her."
With such startling proof of the truth
and the omen before him, Timothy finished
his breakfast in haste and departed for the
barn, from which he soon returned bearing
the squalling biddy by the legs.
"What shall l do with her, mother? I?
She'll get on again, and she's cross as bed.
lam she skinned my hands, and would be
the death of me if she could get loose"
olive heer'n it said that it was a good
plan to throw'em up in the air" said Mrs.
Hayes. "Aunt Peggy broke one of setting,
only three times trying. Spose'n you try
it."
Sup she goes, head or tail p cried Tim,
as he tossed the volcano skyward.
"Laud-o-massy," exclaimed Mrs. H.,
"she's coming down in the pan Of bread
that set out on the great rock to rise =
Tim, it's strange that you can't do nothing
without overriding it."
"Down with the traitors, up with the
stars" sang out Tim, elevating biddy again,
with something less than pint of batter
hanging to her feet.
"Good gracious me, wuss and wuss,"
cried Mrs. Hayes, and Tim agreed with her,
for the hen had come down on the we'll
polished tile of Esquire Bennett, who hap
,pened to be passing, and the dignifed old
gentleman was the father of Cynthia Ben
nett, the young lady with whom Tim was
seriously enamored.
The Squire looked daggers, brushed off
the dough with his handkerchief, and strobe
on in silence.
eyes, but it's going up again." said
Tim, spitefully seizing the clucking biddy
and tossing her at random into the air
Biddy thought it time to manifest her indi-
viduality, and with loud scream she dar-
ted against the parlor window, broke
through, knocked down the canary cage,
and landed plump in the silken lap of Mrs.
Gray, who was boarding at the farm house
Mrs. Gray screamed with horror, and
starting up, dislodged biddy, who flew at
her reflection in the looking glass with an
angry hiss. The glass was shattered, and
down came the hen, astouished beyond
measure, against vase of flowers, which
upset, and in falling knocked over the
stand.dish and deluged with water pair of
drab colored velvet slippers which Helen
Maria was embroidering for her lover, Mr..
James Henshaw
Helen entered the room just as the mis-
chief had been done, and viewing the ruin
she at once laid it to her brother Timothy.
She heard a step behind her, and the un-
fortunate hen she flung full into his face.
There was smothered oath, and the hen
came back with the force of twenty. pound
shot.
Helen was mad. Her eyes were nearly
put out with the feathery dust and dough,
and she went at Timothy with true femi-
nine zeal She broke his watchguard in a
dozen pieces, crushed his dickey and begau
to pull his whiskers out by the roots, when
suddenly she remembered that Timothy had
no wbiskers to pull out by the roots.
But when she came to look closer, she
perceived that the man she had nearly an.
INFLATED was not Timothy, but James Hen
shaw.
Poor Helen burst into tears and fed into
her chamber, the usual refuge for heroines !;
and James, after washing his face at the
kitchen sink, went home, sternly resolved
never to marry woman with such tenn
per as Helen Hayes had.
The hen, meanwhile, who is the heroine,
returned to the barn to establish herself on
the ruin of her nest, determined to set if the
heavens fell.
Mrs Hayes soon discovered her, and she
having heard that dipping in water would
cure "broodiness," she set forth for the
brook with the fowl in her apron.
Mrs. Weaver, an old lady of very quar-
Tesome temperament, who resided near,