The Portland daily press., 1895-02-28
A WONDERFUL HEN.
Lays an Egg Every Day Except Sundays
and Holidays-Is Useful as Clock.

II became acquainted with rather
remarkable hen on my recent trip up
through Western New York. said John
Gilbert, travelling groceryman, to New
York Sun reporter" She lives in Mount
Morris, in the Genesee Valley. No one
knows where she came from, but a oiti-
zen named Arnold discovered her in his
yard one morning last April. keeping
company with the only chicken he owned,
another hen. The strange hen was
plainly tramp, but she settled down
on the Arnold place contenteuly, and
with evident determination to stay
thele Arnold did not object, and few
days later the hen made nest on top
of an ash heap and laid an egg in it, She
must have deposited the egg early in
the morning for it was there at O'Clock,
when Arnold discovered it. This was on
Monday. She laid an egg eve y day after
that until the following SUNDAY, and
each egg was laid an hour later every
day. Sunday the hen didn't lay, but at
10 O'Clock next day she deposited an egg
as usual. AS il to make up skipping an
egg on sunday Mondays egg was an IN
usually large one, and WAS found to be
ouble-yoked. "This remarkable hen
laid an egg every day, the one on Friday
being deposited in the nest at just 4
Saturday, she started in at O'Clock in
the morning with her egg for that day,
and on Sunday laid none. The following
Monday, though, she dropped another
very large egg. This one, too, was found
to have two yolks, and was laid at I
o'cloc,. And SO she went on, depositing
an egg in the nest an hour later each
day until she reached O'Clock in the at
ternoon, when she would go back and
hcr Of n3n1nok I'm the oil
ways taking a rest on Sunday, and max
ing up for it by laying a dou ble- yolked
egg on Monday. She was SO regular nd
prompt on the hour that the 4 I'm Id
family got to setting their clock by ner
but this was not until one day, accord
ing to their clock, she laid her egg for
that day at ten minutes to IL, and they
thought she had made mistake, but
they found that she hadn't, the clock
being just ten minutes slow.
"The fame of this hen soon spread
about that part of the Genessee Valley,
and folks got to. coming miles to see her,
but along about the end of May
they found that they didn't really know
what wonder that tramp hen was. It
was on a Wednesday, and Arnold went
out at the hour an egg was due that day
but there was no egg in the nest. The
hen was wallowing lazily in the dust
near by, but she laid no egg that day.
There was much disappointment over
this, and it was not until they found a
dou ple-yolked egg in the nest next day
that Arnold began to think. And think
ing got an idea
"Why,' SAID he, yesterday was May
so, Decoration Dayi This hen, guess,
doesn't work holidays any more than she
does Sundaysn
"And that was just what she didn't.
This was proved when the Fourth of July
came round. No egg on that day, but a
dou ple-yolked egg next day. Then right
along she went again, an egg every day
except Thanksgiving. No egg Thanks
giving, double yoke day after. No egg
Christmas, no egg New Years Day, but
dou BILE yolks after each one of those holt
DAYS. She's been going right along ever
since then, laying five ordinary eggs
every week and dou BILE yolk on Monday
and of course, is expected to take another
day off ON February 20, Washington IS
Birthday.
what will she do when holiday
comes on Sundav?' asked Arnold the
other day. Why she'd lay an egg with
three yolks next day; that's what she'd
dol And I'll bet on it, And nobody
wouId bet against him."