Litchfield enquirer., 1875-10-28
ouR sErsEY.

If choice bit is to be had some one of
 them will grab it like a Congressman.
 Others will feather their nests nearly as
 well. Then again, noble hen will give
 her only bug to her children. Some of
 my chicks fight before they are we'll on
 their legs, as naturally as children do.
 Many of the ladies do not bother them
 selves with chickens and have time to get
 strong-minded and like Tennyson's learn
 ed women ''dip into whatsoever is. "
 They worry happy mothers who have
 broods by telling them how foolish it is
 to be on the scratch all the time instead
 of flying higher to get a better look at
 things, and hope that Boosters. by and
 by, instead of wasting thelr time strutting and growing. will be made to do the
 matching. Rising young cocks have their
 best tail feathers pulled out when they
 meet these cackling danes. Life is all a
 muddle to these youths when ideas are
 more plentiful than corn. But my ducks
 are my favorites. They have modest lit-
 tie heads, and wear such neat suits of
 black and brown with white collars and
 white trimmings on the breast and shoul-
 ders. The drakes are gorgeous fellows.
 all of these pets of mine are of sound
 wind, limb, and feather, except one poor
 dwarf who has found life SC hard she has often tried to give it up as bad job then changed her mind and "she still lives," For long time she had no feath. CTS. She is parrot toed as we'll as web- footed. It was great while before we would own, even to ourselves, that "Our Betsey" was dwarfed in miud as we'll as in body, but such, alas! is the case. How ever, it will not be noticed where we live, as this part of the world. too tame to re- semble Switzerland in scenery, rivals some of her valleys in producing imbe- ciles.
 When Betsey was quite young she could feed herself, but she took bad cold one day in the cabbage patch from not know ing enough to go in when it rained, which brought on so dire an illness we gave her up. A quack saved her, but from that time her bill (not the doctor's) heightened SO much it brought on a"villianous hang ing of the neither lip,''an now she cannot pick up anything from the ground, but has to be fed from my hand. She eats nothing but bread, soaked in milk or wa ter. When she comes to a hard lump the effort to swallow it upsets her as her heavy tail makes her a very unbalanced character. If the other fowls modest her while she is eating she keeps up steady yibbering scold, and if one of the big 'oosters comes too near, she bites his legs and holds on so tight that le drags her off her own. Then like Grandpe Smallweed she has to be shaken up and begin the meal over again. Betsey is so weak minded she gets confused even on the subject of drink. We set large pan of milk near the kitchen door for the ducks, md as soon as she can waddle to it she olunges into it for swim. This disgusts ler mates so much they hustle her out, md she falls backward over the pan, kick ng her black legs wildly in the air, doubt ess seeing stars in another milky-way.
 No one person could take care of our iwarf, but I am ably assisted by witty who thoroughly appreciates Ter. Betsey has turns of being lost. not but bodily, and the whole family lave to turn out to look her up. Once he was brought home late at night by our College boy from the next street, who 'eeing something futter at his feet thought at first that he had found a rara sUis
 Nothing shows Betsey's mental dei- 'iency SO much as her fearlessness and be confidence she puts in others. She will sit down at the heels of a capering iorse, or before the jaws of @ dog. and will look man in the face as unabashed IS an American statesman, and as innocent. In her case nature has overridden the
 avages of disease, for she can swim. Pen 'annot describe what torment the tide pond behind the house has given us. We nave to put her to bed, and if she cannot ,e found the excitement is intense. One ime at dusk the flock came from the wa er all told but Betsey. At last a dark pot was seen in the marsh, on an island 'ome distance from the shore, and her 'laintive cry came to us. Nothing would tart her, and nobody could get to her. Over and over again the ducks were driv- 'n in to her, but she would not stir. Fi- lally. ''I heard the ripple washing in the eeds. and Betsey started. Boldly she he struck out, but for the middle of the pond. Two frantic women on the shore 'alled her by every name endeared to luckhood but on she sailed into the cur 'ent. Tn another element she was not the ool, and she looked back at us as if she
 thought 20. At last she turned, cruised lround the island and came ashore just where the bog was thickest, and dropped town exhausted. Somebody must get her, but who and how? The mud near 'his tide lake is deep. A little native Southern chivalry came to me. ''mine was to dare and do," and went for .Betsev. A great deal had to be done with my long skirts first. At last close-reefed I started ~ith a stick to take soundings. By iump- ing from one marsh hummock to another. got near to her. Great caution was neces. sary-one false move on my part and she would be in the water. and in the mud. ! dropped my stick-the wild water lap ping on one side of me, black tarn on the other-but Betsey was before me. I stopped. balanced myself. and grasped her, a moist unpleasant body, tucked her under my shawl, and by leaping from tuft to suft again, got to solid ground. A good supper revived our unfortunate. I fear that Betsey cannot stand cold wealth CT. and that an obituary will have to be