The Animal Story Book

t hens in the whole department of Yonne. These hens were chiefly Cochins and Brahmapootras; they laid the most beautiful brown eggs, and Charpillon surrounded them with every

d fortune to belong to a master who knew how to combine the useful with the beautiful. Whenever these hens ventured out upon the road, strangers would exclaim with delight, 'Oh! what beautiful hens!' to which some one better acquaint

nd the nankeen-coloured eggs laid by his Brahma hens had an especially delicate flavour. But all earthly pleasures are uncertain. The next morning Charpillon's hens were found to have only laid three eggs instead of eight. Such a thing had never happened before, and Charpillon did not know whom to suspect; howev

to have a few wo

priv

er so, for the ho

t has the rascal

r solicitor said to you one

ever man, and says many sensible things; still

ut whom the crime benefits, a

axiom perfectly

crime of stolen eggs ben

steals the eggs? Pritchard, who bri

who has vicious instincts, sir, and if he does not come

chard eat

y right to say, sir, th

My fault that Pri

sadly, but nothing c

l me that I pervert everybody's mind with my corrupt literature, but you

edicis, while you were eating an egg, M. Rusconi who was there said

er that q

who was scraping up a bed of fuchsias in

p a bed of fuchsias, but I do rec

een his ruin. Oh! he is quick enough to learn what

emely tedious. How have I sh

ame home, and was complaining to me of his dog-that he was rough and tore things with his teeth in carrying them. "Ah! look at Pritchard," I said to him, "how gentle he is! you shall see the way he carries an egg." So I fetched an egg from the kitchen, placed it o

course I

ows it in a hurry, shell and all! I believed him-I thought it was an accident and fetched another egg. Scarcely did he make three steps with the egg in his mouth than the toothache comes on again, and crack! goes the second egg. I began then to suspect somethi

u never told me th

amed, sir; for thi

not the

shook h

to M. Acoyer's poultry-yard and stole all his. M. Acoyer c

grounds where he had forgotten to

ir-but I really be

nough sins without having that vice la

in some wire getting o

and the hens are shut up at night. H

se after eggs; he can charm the hens. Pr

astonish me m

la Medicis; only M. Charpillon has such wonderful hens, I did not t

ink it is Pr

and that is the reason they don't lay-at

hould much like to k

ut of your window-you can see the poultry-yard from it,

hanges of governments, and to see something I have ne

r that-I can wake yo

t early dawn,

el,' said I, comi

ritchard suspects that he is watched, he won'

tely opened both eyes, stretched himself and stood upright upon his three feet. He then cast a glance all round him, and seeing that all was quiet, disappeared into a shed, and the next moment we saw him coming out of a sort of little window on the other side. From this window Pritchard easily got upon the sloping roof which overhung one side of the poultry-yard. He had now only to jump down about six feet, and having got into the inclosure he lay down flat in f

egg, 'you see it is no wonder that Pritchard has such a clear voice. Yo

on't know is how Pritchard propose

see what the sc

me noise in the house, stood up on his hind leg, and slipping one of his

ed him why the yard door was left open, he would say it

RD AND

have the wickedness

is not come to his full growth, but some day, min