They behaved like perfect
ladies--I might have known it was too bright to last!" She heaved a
sigh.
"I know you're working up to some horrible tragedy, and I'm sure I
won't be able to bear it!" said her hearer, much agitated. "Tell me the
worst!"
"So they sat--"
"You said that before!"
"Well, they sat before--and after," said Norah, unmoved. "Two of them
brought their eggs out, beautiful clutches, twelve in one and thirteen
in the other. Such luck! I used to be like the old woman who pinched
herself and asked, 'Be this I?' They all lived in a fox-proof
yard--fence eight feet high with wire-netting on top. I wasn't leaving
anything to chance about those chicks."
"Was it cholera? Or pip?"
"Neither," said Norah. "They were the very healthiest, all of them. The
chickens grew and flourished, and when they were about a week old, the
other six hens were all about to bring out theirs within two days. Oh,
Wally, I was so excited! I used to go down to the yard about a dozen
times a day, just to gloat!"
"Never gloat too soon," said Wally. "It's a hideous risk!"
"I'm never going to gloat again at all, I think," said Norah,
mournfully. The recital of her woes was painful. "So I went down one
morning, and found them all happy and peaceful; the six old ladies
sitting in their boxes, and the two proud mammas with their chicks,
scratching round the yard and chasing grasshoppers.
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