The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-25
MRS. EEATHERTOPI

Fred said his father one day. as they sat at the breawfast table. T i will give you some chickens on one condition;S and that is you build them a. house yourself.'' -
 Thank you, father said Fred, with sparkling eyes. IlI show you what a nice henhouse I can make" and in a moment more he was opening his tool chest. In about an hour, dur ing which time he had been busily en- gagged in breaking up old wooden box | es and collecting such odd pieces of timber as he could scrape together Fred was ready to begin his building. operations. He had chosen a sunny. sloping4 bank covered with a thick growth of bushes, and there he erect ed a nice little henhouse with two Isg1ass windows, a little door and a. good polepo1e for his family of chickens to roost on. He made. moreover. a row of little boxes with hay in them for nests and @Ile bought three or four white china eggs to put in them. so that. when his hens did lay, he might carry off their eggs without their bes l ing missed.
 In due course of time the chickens were installed in their new home and appeared quite delighted with their surroundings. One hen in particular had taken Fred,s fancsy on account of her bright eyes, her finely shaded fea- thers and certain saucy, flashing ways hthat she had. He called her Mrs. FeathertOp.
 l The care he took of his chickens greatly pleased his father. as well as | the skill he had displayed in butIding 1.-the henhouse, and so, when the spring came around and the time for the I hens to begin to think about raising little chickens of their own, Fred g father remarked to him one day, Ms. Feathertop looks and acts as if she wanted to set. Fred; suppose I get 1 you some very fine eggs and we Il raise some special breed.
 1HIf you don't mind. father" replied Fred. q should like to put some ducks eggs under Feathertop; by next Christmas would have some fine ducks for our Christmas dinner..s
 .sAll right, laughing1y replied his father, 'go ahead; you've got splen- did place for them, close to the river, and I've no doubt you will have good success: but, Fred,'' he added, with a twinkle in his eye, it will be rather hard on your faxorite hen when she finds out she has swimmers instead of scratchersi'' Fred joined in the laugh 70 well. father. he answered somebody's got to hatch them, and I think F'eathertop is the most sensi- blei's
 Meanwhile. the sun rose and set, and Fred was the only friend and as sociate of poor little Mrs. F'eathertop, whom he fed daily with meal and wa ter, and only interrupted her sad re- ections by pulling her up occasionally to see how the eggs were coming on- At last, Peep. peep, peepw began to be heard in the nest, ond one little downy head after another poked forth from under the feathers, surveying the world with round, bright, winking eyes; and gradually the brood was matched.
 Little by little, however. Mrs Feath- ertop's life became more Of a burden. as each day passed. Her family would persist in getting their feet wet, do what she might to prevent it. At ev- cry opportunity hey would waddle in mud and water; and all the time their bills were growing larger and larger as did the rest of their bodies, and Mrs sFeathertop's control grew weaker and weaker.
 You'll certainly wear me out, cfil- dren; you certainly will,n said poor Mrs eFathertop.
 At last one day, the whole tribe waddled off down to the bank of the river.
 Here goes!' said the biggest of the little ducks, and in he pumped, and in went all his little brothers and sis ters after him, and they threw out their great brown feet as cleverly as if tehy had taken rowing lessons all their lives.
 Mrs. eF'athertop stood on the bank and watched her offspring until she could see them no more Then she turned around and shook her wings, as
 much as to say, "I can't understand it. I can't understand it ;but they seem perfectly well able to take care
 of themselves, either on land on sea, | so think had better go back to lay ing eggs. And Mrs. Feathertop kept to
 her resolution and in a. few days she
 had lost all traces of worry and was
 just as young and pretty as ever. ''I declare said Fred to his father.
 '.I think Feathertop is the cutest little
 hen I ever saw She looks up at me
 sometimes as much as to say, Some
 body must have made a, mistake about l those eggs!'