Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1867-10-24
Prom the New York Mercury.l
FAIRY Stories for Little Folks.
RY AN OLD FASHIONED FELLOW.
MEETA'S HEN.

Out Of the brown hens fifteen chick
ems it happened that one was lame,
and feeble, and could not run with
the rest !; so it was left to die; but
little Meeta finding it, and hearing it
cry, was so sorry for it that she put it
in a basket balffull of feathers, fed it
with meal, and tended it as if it were
a baby.
And here brother and sister laughed
at her.
"See the wonderful hen that Meta
has TAKEN" said they 'such spen-
did fowl; no doubt it will one day
make her fortune, or at the very least
she will take prize for it at the fair"
The chicken grew, however, laugh
as they might, and though it was
always lame, there was not such fowl
for intelligence in the whole barn.
yard. 1t knew Meeta, and would
run to her, to try.to caress her, with
so much affection, that the little girl
really learned to love it. She carried
it in her arms, she fed it out of her
own plate, and sat with it on her
shoulder. Nobody took any notice
of all this, until one day, something
happened, that changed their tune in
a moment.
The lame hen laid golden egg.
At once the entire family began to
quarrel about the egg. Each claimed
the hen, that had been so despised,
and the only one who was not heard
at all was Meeta.
Meantime. the father took the golden
egg to goldsmith.
"Where did you get this ." asked
the goldsmith, astonished.
"That l shall not tell you,' an.
swered the father; at is your place
to melt it, and tell me how much
money it will make"
The goldsmith was not at all salts
fed with this, but as he could learn
nothing more, he was forced to be
contented, and to do as he vas bid.
So be gave the father the money, and
all the family began to buy ; so that
the townspeople wondered. By-and-
by, the father brought the goldsmith
more golden eggs, and the goldsmith,
who was more curious than before.
said:
1--WE will see if be can't be made
to speak out"
So he went to the King and told
him that one Of his subjects, who had
lately been poor, had brought to him
a great many eggs of solid gold, and
ordered him to make them into money,
but that he refused to tell where he
got them.
The King was at once as curious
and eager as the goldsmith, and sent
his officer to bring the man before
him.
"Where do you get your golden
eggs = asked the King, In voice OF
thunder, as soon as the man was
brought before him.
The father fell on his knees.
"Our Meeta's lame hen lays them,"
said be.
The King sent at once for the hen.
at is not right" said be, "tbat any
one but the King should have this
wonderful treasure"
So he placed the hen in a golden
cage, and appointed three men to
await on it; and every day Meeta
came aud sat outside of the gate hop
ing to get sight of her hen.
"By and.by the hen LAID an egg,
and the officer carried it to the King!
but, alas it was not of gold, but of
lead and on it was written, Cursed
10 the King who robbeth the in
nocent."
This is your work." said the King
to bis trembling offices, and ordered
their heads to be cut off. Then he
himself kept guard over the hen, and
by-and.by the hen laid another egg
but it was Of iron, not gold, and on it
was written, "Stolen.'
The King, in rage, seized the
hen, and attempted to wiring her
neck; but she slipped through his
fingers, and flew out Of the window.
The King bawled for the Lord High
Fiddlesticks, but be was eating his
dinner, and did not hear the King,
who, starting after the hen himself,
trippsd on the stairs, and broke his
neck.
Meantime, the hen few into Meeta's
bosom, and in the confusion, nobody
in the palace could tell which way it
went, Meeta went home, and found
her father and brother terrified
out Of their wits by what had hap
pened.
"Go away said they. with your
Jn