The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-17
DOLLY HEARS THAT
 PEGGY HAS "CHICKENITIS'
Talks orpngtons and Plymouth Rocks Until You Want to Kill Her Systems That Must Be Followed and All That Sort of Thing Dear to the Chicken Heart
 The Old Gray Hen Dear Feminine Friend
BY DOLLY DALRYMpLE

temperature, to feed the day old chicks with oatmeal at stated intervals and to
 guard the life of her sacred hens at any
 cost. To respectable yet impossible peo-
 pie we went with her to find out about feathered things, and our teeth chatteSed
 and our backs nearly broke, lodging in
 and out Of chicken houses. In the midst of the most entertaining conversation Peggy would break in with some new ex- | perience about chickens until she nearly drove us all crazy! You see we live Tn an apartment, that leaves no room for live | stock of any description if you've lived in an apartment you know that none of us wants to be bothered with even so much
 as canary bird, and yet when we heard Peggy talk, we felt like we had committed
 crime by not having housed something | live that we could talk about" Now in these days being a chicken is
 not the simple thing by any means that
 it used to be, l discovered" Nancy con- | tinued, for there are systems to be | followed world without end No longer is the corner of the lot fenced off, and an
 old box with straw fixed for clucking
 hen, while Nature does the rest. No, in-
 deed; things have changed. People at
 Washington have spent much time and considerable money on chicken lore and the real chicken fiend raises f1ocks seien-
 tifcally if you please, in these parlous
 days. So Peggy delved about and talked Chicken talk, and system to every single blessed soul she could find, until 1t was
 time for her to terminate her visit, and
 got ready and went home with her" When we arrived at her country place
 she greeted her husband affectionately, for Peggy really is devoted to him" i"
 Nancy said, "and then she began q rapid fire string of questions that nearly drove me crazy.
 ''Iow about the old hen in the barn,
 had she been on her job?' Was the in-
 cubator working right? How many had
 the Plymouth Rock hen added to the pop
 ulation of chicken-dom, and the Lord
 knows what else"
 Early the next morning I was taken out to see the chickens-little yellow balls of fluff and very attractive, but not hav- | ing chicks of my own, really could not
 rave as extraYagantly as Peggy did, for | to her each one of them was real and ! human"
 You get to know your hens like friends and acquaintances," Peggy confid- ed, and they are the queerest. most tenn peramental things in the world Now, that
 Rhode Island Red (pointing to a hand some hen of generous proportions) I know | is a suffragette. She never stays on her nest even when she's given all the signs that she intends settling down and be-
 having herself She runs all the clubs and culture classes in the hen house. Now that old black hen over there (pointing to a good motherly looking soul with
 fuzzy legs and big affectionate wings) is
 model mother. She isn't one bit ad-
 vanced. She stays right at home and mothers her flock just as if an Incubator had never been made"
 Nancy remained silent.
 Really. chicken raising" Peggy went on, not heeding," is the most like gam bling of any perfectly respectable thing l know. and many an old maid shut up wave off in the country has as much ex- citement with her Spring Chickens as a man in Wall Street"
 Just at this point one of the maids rushed up to Peggy said Nancy and de- | livered a message that made her turn ashy white. 'Is your husband dead?" I
 asked in alarm.
 No, it's the old gray hen,' said Peg gy, sobbing. T haven't seen her since got back and I just knew something had happened to her"
 You couldn't be more distressed if if
 were blood relative" Nancy said impa tiently.
 "She was dear. feminine friend of
 mine" said Peggy, very much hurt, "and
 shall mourn her loss more than I can say. It's like losing one of the familvp ''I held my peace" said Nancy. resign edly. flor black hen will remain to me to the end of time merely a black hen whom Providence has ordained to pro vide the table with eggs. But then live in city apartment far. far away from the delights of incubators, day old chicks and 'systems'-Governmen or otherwise. ''