The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1879-05-28
THE POULTRY SHOW.

They were two forlorn chickens that
landed at the foot of the garden, where the
river ran, fast wedged in a cake of ice, with
hardly any feathers, and with both feet
frozen. Marcia took them in and wrapped
their poor claws in oil and wool, and fed
them in a basket, and gave them the air on
fine days by walking abroad with the basket
on her arm, till, as she went by, the neigh
bors were wont to speak of her as the poul-
try show,
But Marcia was sublimely Indifferent to
neighbors considering that they existed
only for the purpose of borrowing" and
being much more fond of dumb animals
than of humanity, going about half the
time followed by her pets-a bird in her
hair, parrot on her finger, cats purring
round her feet and dogs bounding in her
path. She heartily agreed with somebody
who says dog is a perpetual baby in the
house, never growing up, never telling tales.
OF course her brothers and her superior
elder sisters, and all her cousins and their
confidential friends, thought Marcia's last
fancy was the worst of all. "Those ridicu-
lous chickens % was becoming a family
watchword. But their condition on that
cake of ice, as they hoated farther and
farther away from the barnyard that was
home, had rather touched poor Marcia's
heart, and she would have given them her
own breakfast, and have gone without
every day herself, rather than not have fed
them. Although the means at home were
limited, still they were not 80 much 80
that the chickens needed TO go unfed but
the fact of Msrcia's temper getting fired
early IN the affair, although she said moth
ing, determined her to make those chickens
pay for what they had; and when, one day,
oh -, L.
! and laid them in triumph on her mothers
lap, she fek that she had said great deal.
But, those eggs bestowed, she allowed her
mother no more Great ideas had entered
her head. She came home one day from a
long walk with black Spanish hen in her
arms, for which she had contracted debt
to be paid in her Houdin eggs. When,
some six weeks afterward, a dozen curious
little gallinaceOus specimens were running
about the yard, Marcia watched them with
intense curiosity, and for weeks, if not
months, to come seemed to be holding her
breath. Not an egg of her Houdin hens,
however, did she allow to be taken for pud-
ding or cake; one basketful of them went
to buying a pair of young brown Leghorns,
another basketful was found to have pur-
chasing power equal to securing a pair of
white bantams, and then the Houdin hen
whose inclinations had been seriously tam
pered with, insisted upon raising a family
of her own. But Marcia felt very we'll
equipped, and she added only some patience
to her stock in trade just then. At four
months old her brown Leghorn pullet laId
an egg, and on that same day she brought
one of her twelve chickens into the house in
a rapture-it was black chicken with a
huge white top-knot
My fortunes madep said Marcia
"There are no fowl like these in all this
part of the country. It's black Poland
read about them in the library book"
declare, Marcia" moaned her mother,
9 believe you're insane about these miser-
able birds. You have no time or thought