Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-01-26

L
over the chicken, and Katie looked
on. "We will leave it in the water
for few minutes" said Henrik, and.
as Katie had no objections to that.
they did so. "Now," decided Henrik,
after what he thought was suitable
time. 1.-The feathers ought to come
out easily after that soaking" The
! feathers did, o. yes, and so did the
skin. The poor chicken looked pretty
much damaged. when at last Henrik
declared that he had gotten all the
feathers. He had Also all of the
skin and, underlying fat. Still, the
bones were there. all of them. The
meat was there, most of it.
Then Henrik started the clean-out
process. This certainly was hard
work, calling for lot of patience.
Whoever would think that such a
thing could be so difficult. 1t looked
so easy when you saw someone else
do it. 1t took a long time. a lot of
work and sweating before Henrik had
the insides of that chicken outside.
And it cannot be said that he was
absolutely successful. The little sack
containing the gall, had gone to
pieces. A few other things had done
the same. No, it could not be said
THAT he had been absolutely success
full. And no one said it. But still,
the chicken was there, and, surely, it
would be. all right when it was fried.
1t did not smell quite right just now,
but when it is done-nice and crisp
and brown and delicate, ah, yum,
Yum. That will be compensation for
all the work and trouble. Just wait.
Not without a certain amount of
fear and trembling did Katie start
her part. But she did start. And
Henrik went to his study. He felt
that he needed rest.
The chicken continued to smell
queerly after it was in the oven.
In fact, the smell became stronger
and more = queer. 1t permeated the
atmosphere. 1t went through the
open window, across a strip of lawn,
over fence, into a small vegetable
garden and up the nOstrilS of Peter
Hanson, bachelor, Henrik Woodwork S
nearest neighbor. Said he, straight
ening himself. shifting the air, to
his only friend and companion, a
big, black cat: What a funny smell
Tommy. The minister surely is go
ing to have something rare for sup
per. don't know what it is, but
don't think it's anything we would
care about, TOmmy-bOy." In this
he was very, very wrong, although
he did not know. of course.
Came at last the time when Katie
} could not any more endure the open
, ing of the oven door. She called
, Henrik He came. He smelled. He
grabbed his nose. This was not quite
right. Never before had chicken
smelled that way. Something must
be wrong. Something must be very
wrong. Could the chicken have beer
sick? Hardly. The farm woman had
, several such lusty youngsters in q
, crate and just reached in and took
{ the first she got hold of. No, sicl
, it could not have been. But all the
{ same. something was wrong. Nobody
, could possibly eat that chicken. No
, body could sit down to meal with
, such an offensive odor. At least
. Henrik knew he could not. Also, hi
: knew that Katie could not.
Agreed: The chicken was not edi
5 Tble. Next! What could and SHOULD
be done with it?
| Loot = woS dociAod that SOnY
> as darkness had wrapped the town
: and everything in it, in its mantle
! Henrik would go out into the garden
and - bury the chicken. That wa
S the only way out.
! Henrik was fairminded. 81 an
: afraid it is my fault" said he. g
). guess | did not do it right. Mex
Q time | will be more careful. w,
d learn by our mistakes, dearie." Which
goes to show that Henrik was wis,
r man, after all. When we know tina
h we learn by our mistakes, we'll, the
@ we know - something.
n The chicken was put out on tn
It back porch, and later, when Henri
n thought the. right time had come
n he wrapped the chicken in a piece Q
d paper, took a spade and went on
Il to do what must be done.
n He put the package on the groun
e beside him and started to dig tn
e grave in which to bury one mistake
d He worked diligently for while and
b thinking the hole deep enough, turne
l. to take the chicken just in tim
e to see it grasped and borne away
d Peter Hanson's big black cat, Tomm.
Henrik gasped He threw the spad
70 on the ground and ran after the ca
le He had only one thought. The ca
Of must not get away with the CHECKER
A He simply must not. So Henrik ra
IN after the cat, and, of course, tn
lie cat could not run very fast with hi
n heavy burden. The cat jumpe
rs through the fence. Henrik jumpe