Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-04-25

was no loss. Now you know. that /.
some of you do. expect. that the eggs
Of different kinds of fowls take diff
ferent length of time to hatch. For
instance, hen matches in three weeks
duck takes four; turkey will have
five, and goose does not bring off her
brood for six; so all the eggs could not
be put il, the nest at once, and Mrs.
Turkey went to work gravely On one
goose egg.
When she had set week, three fine
turkey eggs were added to her stock;
the next week in went the duck eggs;
the third week brought her reinforce
ment of hens eggs, and presently the
whole six weeks had slipped by; and
one morning when Miss Lizzie went to
unlock the door. there was madam,
very thin and meager-looking from her
long sitting, but the proud possessor
of mo:ley family. Every egg had
Matched; three little downy chickens,
seven fuzzy little yellow ducklings,
four pretty little striped turkeys and
one web-footed yellow gosling.
It was a funny, funny family, but the
old mother got on very we'll with them
for time, and took equally good care
of them all. Soon, however, her up-
grateful chick-a-biddies began to spend
the most of their time with the hens,
and finally they deserted her alto
gether.
Then the little ducks kept her in a
state of constant anxiety, because they
| would go into the water, which she
knew well enough was not natural
act with turkeys; she scolded them
roundly, but the result was that they
did as they pleased, and finally desert
| ed her altogether and took up their
quarters with the ducks. So the good
old foster-mother had only one of the
turkeys left in her family, and that was
the goose.
But goosie-gosling made up to her
for all the ingratitude of her thankless
musings; he was perfectly devoted to
her, andafollowed right at her heels all
the time. After awhile, he ate so
much, and trotted about SO much, that
he grew to be q big goose; and then
Miss Lizzie thought he ought to learn
to live with his own sort of people; so
one evening, after she had fed the
fowls, she decided to make the change.
And just here / must tell you how
funny that feeding was. She never
called to feed; she used to ring bell,
and up they all would come, no mat
ter where they were.
Three times a day that bell called
all the folks in feathers together. In
the evening, after they had eaten their
supper, they would all go without one
bit of trouble into their different houses
for the night; and as l began to say,
Miss Lizzie tried to teach the turkeys
goose-child to go and sleep with the
geese. He didn't like it at all, he
would try to go into the turkey-house
whether or no; and what a time he
gave poor Miss Lizzie, in trying to
have his own way! Finally she had
high fence built all round the turkey
house which they could fly over we'll
enough, but poor goosie was so fat and
heavy that he could not, and then
what a taking he was in! He tried
and he tried. he quacked and he cried,
but all the same he couldn't climb that
fence any way.
At last, when he found he could not
get into the turley-house and make
believe he was a turkey, he would
drop his wings. turn round, and make
straight for the goose-pen, crying at
every step he took. He had a very
funny voice, and it sounded exactly as
if he said, '.Oh, la! oh, la!'' as he went
along. Once in the pen, he was quiet
enough, but the moment the fowls
were turned out in the morning he
would run as fast as his fiat feet would
carry him to old Mother Turkey, and
cackle and gobble like the happiest of
geese.
They were comical folk, these fowls
of Miss Lizzie's! One day she took
some visitors into the clearinghouse.
There sat the hens, sober as judges,
turning their bright eyes from side to
side, but not taking any other notice
of the ladies. The ducks, too. all kept
their seats; they had core on purpose.
But those ridiculous turkeys! They
seemed to think the ladies were an in
vestigating committee of some sort, so
every one of them got up off of her
nest and turned gravely round, as much
as to say: Only few eggs we are
sitting on, ladies; you can see for your
selvesr' and then just as gravely sat
down again. - Rebecca Cameron, in
Youths Companion.