The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-01-19
miscellaneous.
Breaking Up Setting Hen.
BY CLARA AUGUSTA.

| l1luOUuy, lIldb dill .ycJlSI llol . IL
setting again. said Mrs. Hayes to her
son, one morning at breakfast.
."Well, let her set" remarked Tim
othy, helping himself to a huge piece
of cheese. II reckon l can stand it as
long as she can"
II do wish you'd try to be a little
more equinomical of cheese, Tim
othv,n said his mother. 1--we cut the
last of my every other day lot, and it's
only the first of May. And now, as
soon as you're done eating, want you
| to go out and break up that hen.
She's a setting on an old axe, and two
bricks, now"
Hope she'll hatch 'em,n returned
Timothy.
''If she was sot now she'd hatch the
| fourth week in May. It's bad sign :;
something alters happens after it.
Stop giggling, Helen Maria; by the
time you get to be as old as yer ma,
you'll see further than you do now.
| There was Jenkins folks-their gray
top-not Matched the last week in May,
and Miss Jenkins she had the conjunc-
ton of the lungs, and would have died
| if they hadn't killed lamb and wrop-
ped her up in the hide while it was
warm. That was all that saved her"
With such q startling proof OF the
| truth of the omen before him, Timothy
finished his breakfast in haste, and
| departed for the barn, from which he
| soon returned bearing the squalling
biddy by the legs.
What shall l do with her, mother -
asked this dutiful boy. She'll get
right ON again, and she's as cross as
| bedlam-she skinned my hands, and
| L 4 Of, oh
get loose
I've heern it said that it was a
good plan to throw 'em up into the
air. said Mrs. Hayes. Aunt Peggy
broke one of setting only three times
trying. Spose'n you try ii"
up she goes Heads or tails -
cried Tim, giving the feathered vol
cano a toss skyward.
''Laudy MASSEY !" exclaimed Mrs.
Hayes, "she's coming down into that
pan of bread that | sot out on the
great rock to rise. There knowed
it Il. Tim, tits strange that you can t
do anything without OVERRIDING it
Down with the traitor, up with the
star" sung out Tim, elevating biddy
again with some less than a pint of
! batter hanging to her feet.
Good gracious me .-wuss and
wuss - cried Mrs. Hayes, and Tim
agreed with her, for the hen had come
down on the well-polished tile of Els
quire Bennett, who happened to be
passing, and the dignified old gentle
men was the father of Cynthia Ben
net, the young lady with whom lin
was seriously enamored.
The squire looked daggers, brushed
off the dough with his handkerchief,
and strobe on in solemn silence.
"Poultry seems to be falling" re-
marked the hired man, passing by
with basket of potatoes.
| Eyes, but it's going up again, said
Tim, spitefully, Selling the clucking
biped, and tossing her at random into
the air. Biddy thought it about time
| to manifest her individuality, and
with a loud scream, she darted against
parlor window, broke through, knock
ed down the canary cage, and landed
plump in the silken lap of Mrs. Gray,
who was boarding at the farm house.
Mrs. Gray screamed with horror,
and starting up, dislodged biddy, who
flew at her reflection in the looking
| glass with an angry hiss. The glass
was shattered, and down came the
| hen, astonished beyond measure,
against a vase of flowers, which upset,
and in falling, knocked over the STAN
| dish, and deluged with ink and water
a pair of drab- colored velvet slippers,
which, Helen Maria was embroidering
| for her lover, Mr. James Henshaw.
Helen enter the room, just as the
mischief had been done, and viewing
the ruin, she at once laid it to her
brother Timothy. She heard his step
! behind her, and Selling the unfortun-
ate hen she turned quickly and flung
| her full in his face.
There was IL smothered oath, and
the hen came back again with the
force of a twelve-pound shot.
Helen was mad. Her eyes were
nearly put out with feathers, dust and
dough, and she went at Timothy with
true feminine zeal. She broke his
watch-guard into a dozen pieces,
crushed his dickey, and began to pull
his whiskers out by the roots, when she
suddenly remembered that Timothy
had no whiskers to pull out by the
roots.
| And when she came to look closer.
she perceived that the man she had
nearly annihilated was not Timothy,
but James Henshaw.
| Poor Helen burst into tears and fled
to her chamber, the usual refuge OF
heroines and James, after washing
the blood from his face at the kitchen
sink, went home, sternly resolved
never to marry a woman with such a
temper as Helen Hayes.
The hen, meanwhile, who is our
heroine, returned to the barn and es-
tablished herself on the ruins of her
nest, sulenly determined to set if the
heavens fell.
Mrs. Hayes soon discovered her, and
full of wrath, tore her from the nest /;
and having heard that dipping in wa
ter would cure "broodiness," she set
forth for the brook with the fowl in
her apron.
Mrs. Weaver, an old lady of very
quarrelsome temperament, who resid-
ed near, and who was at swords points
with Mrs. Hayes, was just coming to
the brook after pail of water, and
spied the yellow head of the bird peep,
ing out from Mrs Hayes apron.
"There ~ she exclaimed, now I've
found out what has puzzled me nigh
about to death for over a week I've
found out where my yellow pullet has
gone to. Miss Hayes, alters knowed
! you was wicked, desateful woman
but | didn't think you'd steal -
"Steal me steal who are you talk