The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-29
CHICKENS.
A Composition ON the Subject by a
Small Boy.

Composition on the Subject by n
Small Boy.
Most usually it takes two eggs for to
make a chicken, because, if you will
will put eighteen eggs under a hen,
only about nine of 'em will hatch. A
hen is so careless and stubborn that
most likely she won't cover her eggs all
over, and SO they get chilled then they
are everlastingly gone up. Also, the
rats will rob nest; SO that, if you get
half of brood, it is a tol'able crop,
and you should be thankful. Then, l
think, it stands to reason this ought to
prove what l said at first. Ahen, which
has got young family, is more crosser
than anything else which can be COM
pared with her under the sun in the
United States. There never was thing
which can ruff1e its feathers up backward
and rage worse than a fool hen. A
turkey gobbler will do it, but he don't
go off into a red-hot passion about it,
and make fool of himself, and get enc
mics all for nothing, like a hen would.
A chicken in the spring time which was
put to hatch in March, if it has good
luck and don't die of the pip, or gaps,
! or the ,cholery-morbus, or get drownded
or something, will be big enough to sell
t. the restaurant about in June. They
Will fetch Sc a dozen, and chicken is
more popular where it is spring chick
en- than if it would live long enough to
get as tough as Methuseler. They say
| that a spring chicken is a luxurious
| thing for to 5roil and mix up with toast
That's what I have heard. Once in a
great while we have spring chickens for
dinner. Then we have the preacher. or
else some company, and 1 eat at the
| secondhand table, and can always tell
by the savory smell going on in the
kitchen that broiled chicken ought to
be good enough for anybody. But if l
can't get something to eat more sub
stantialler than a smell, 1 always fall
back on roast beef. A chicken don't
gather shrewdness like a owl, and it
never picks up any wisdom. 1t is not a
talented thing like a fox. If you can
show me more stupider thing than a
hen, wish you would trot her out
The rooster has got what little sense
there ever was in the family. 1t is one
of the worst difficulties with a chicken
that she don't know its place. She
won't stay in the barn-yard, where she
belongs, any way you can fix it. If
your mother has got fiower-beds in the
front-yard-and it's a mighty curious
mother which ain't-every last chicken
on the place will get in to search them,
if it takes till next Christmas; and then
goodbye to the hyacinths, and GRO
cuses, and ierryranthems, and all that
kind of foolishness. Then is the time
that you want to have two jackets on,
or else to forget to come home early, if
it was you which left the lattice gate
open. Anyhow, that's my advice. Also,
hen is hard-hearted and cruel, and
will kill every little desolated stray
chicken who tries to associate with her
own brood, and this good enough rea-
son why she is like a step-mother. If
hen once gets a fair hold of little
chicken to shake it by the nape of its
neck, it will never kick again in this
community more than twice. The fire.
quentest bad habit which hen has got
is going off to the neighbors to lay;
also it is too soft thing for the neigh
bors but it is generally chronic for
hen to do it, and the only way for to
cure her is to cut her head off and boil
her down into soup. She won't go to
the neighbors to lay many times after
that, 1 don't think.