and a good sized yard, in which we kept a number of cocks and hens. You would never have been tired of looking at them and feeding them, if you had been there. First, there was Jack, a fine high-spirited English cock, a majestic-looking fellow, with a superb scarlet crown on his head, purple and red feathers that hung gracefully down on his wings, and a tail of brilliant colours. Then the hens, they were pretty creatures; some were quite black, with a red crest; some were speckled with different hues, so that when the sun shone upon them, it was impossible to say whether their feathers were mostly purple, or brown, or gold. And then, oh! Tiny, which you would have liked best of all, were the pretty white hens-one especially, that they called Snowball, was the very prettiest and whitest hen you ever saw.'

"What a little darling thing!' exclaimed Tiny, clasping her hands; 'was that pretty white hen yours, mamma ?’ 'Yes, Tiny; it belonged to me and my brother, Arthur-your own uncle, you know, Tiny. Arthur named it Snowball, because there was not one single coloured feather in its graceful body. This hen and little Redcap, a speckled fowl with a tuft of red feathers on its head, were the beauties of the yard.'

'But, mamma,' interrupted Johnnie, do tell us something about that fine old Jack."

'Yes, Johnnie, I am coming to him—all in good time. I remember the day he was born. It was a bitterly cold, bleak morning; and as he had been hatched in the oven, we were obliged to keep him in the kitchen, or he would have died.'

'How funny!' said May. 'What do you mean, mamma, by "hatched in the oven?" 'I thought hens always

hatched their own little ones.'

'So they do, May; but Jack's mother had died, so we were obliged to take her eggs and put them into an oven that was kept always in one particular state of heat, so as to be as much as possible like the warmth of the hen's body.'

'And were the eggs put in a dish?' asked May.

No, indeed, May, they were laid in a snug little box lined with soft wool. So when Jack was born, we had a comfortable basket brought near the fire, and we let him stay there if he would. Arthur and I fed him several times a day; first, with sopped bread; and then we boiled an egg quite hard, and chopped it up into very small bits; and Jack could very soon take care of himself. At the end of a week we let him out upon the lawn when the sun shone, and he would run about so fast that we very often lost sight of him; for he would creep among the rose bushes, and it was very difficult to keep one's eyes upon him.

'Once we had such a fright! Arthur was called away, just as it was his turn to look after Jack; and when I came into the garden, he was nowhere to be found. We had a fine hunt for him; and, after an hour's search, discovered him quietly pecking away under the gooseberry trees in the kitchen-garden. After this we resolved that he should not be allowed to go where he liked; so Arthur contrived to inclose a little plot of grass, where he might run about, but not be able to get away again. This did very well until Jack was grown bigger, and then we found that we must give him more space, if we wished him to be a fine, healthy bird; so it was then that your grandpapa had a nice large yard separated from the garden, in which the cocks and hens might do as they liked; for it was very bad for them to be shut up in a hen-house always.

CHAPTER II.

'AND did you put Jack into the yard with the other cocks and hens, mamma?' asked Johnnie.

Yes, we did, when he was big enough to manage well for himself. We soon saw that he promised to become an uncommonly handsome fellow; but, with all

his beauty, he was a most quarrelsome creature, always wanting to fight, ever ready to fly at anything that came in his way. If Arthur only put the top of his boot to his nose, he would peck at it fiercely; or if one of the servants just held the end of a broom to his foot, he would make a dash at it, and try to pull out the twigs, growing quite angry if he was not allowed to get at it.

'This was amusing, and only made everybody the more anxious to provoke him, and see what further mischief he would try to do.

'You see, from his having been brought up in the kitchen, he was a favourite with us all, and, in spite of his proud, passionate temper, became the pet of the family. Certainly, he amused us very much with his droll

tricks.

'One fine summer afternoon, when the hens were all quiet in their house, thinking of the new chickens that were coming, and the servants had put away the dinner things and gone upstairs, Mr Jack marched boldly across the yard, up the three steps that led into the kitchen, and went straight to an open cupboard, in which he had often seen the cook put away nice things, when he was a young chicken. It happened that day that there had been a currant pie for dinner, and a part of it that was left had been put into the lowest shelf of this cupboard. Jack spied it out, and began to eat, eat, eat, till his crop was so swelled out that he could eat no more; then, having got all that he wanted, he was just walking off, when Arthur came in and caught him. He could see what Mr Jack had been about, for his bill was red with currant juice, and he had made a fine mess and splutter on the floor, close by the cupboard.

'Arthur let him go off without punishing him; indeed, I don't see how he could have been punished, for he knew no better, and we had all encouraged him in his tricks.

self to the currant pie, he laughed heartily, and said, "I am glad of it; I am glad of it! He has had a capital dinner."'

What fun!' said Johnnie.

'But it was very naughty,' said May.

And greedy, too,' added Tiny, looking up at her

mamma.

'Yes, so it was, Tiny,' replied the mother; but then, you know, Jack knew no better. However, you will soon see that he was not always to have his own way.

Grandpapa was a very early riser. He was in the garden long before the servants were up; and the first thing he did was to open the hen-house, and let out the hens and Jack, and then he gave them a good breakfast of barley-meal and corn. It was one of his greatest pleasures to see how eagerly they ate it all up, and then would follow him about, expecting more.

One morning we missed grandpapa from the breakfast table, where he was generally to be found waiting for us. He was not in his arm-chair in his accustomed corner. Arthur ran about the house looking for him; but he was not in his dressing-room, nor in the schoolroom, nor in the kitchen. But presently, we heard his voice calling "Arthur, Arthur! May, May!"—that was my name, you know, dears. Still, we could not see him, but thought that the sound came from the bottom of the yard. So down we both ran, Arthur and I, as fast as we could, to the hen-house, and there was grandpapa standing near one of the perches, holding Jack tight by his neck and legs.

"Oh! what is the matter?" I said.

""What has Jack been doing, papa?" asked Arthur, quite out of breath.

"Take him away," replied grandpapa, "and I will tell you all about it when I have rested, for I am very tired."

'We saw that something terrible had happened, for

134

Gentleman Jack."'

there was blood on Mr Jack's handsome head; some of his feathers were hanging loose, as if they had been plucked at by something or somebody. Altogether, he looked in a miserable plight.

'Arthur put him into a basket and shut him up in the back kitchen. Then we ran to breakfast, eager to hear what had happened.

'We did not like to ask any questions, seeing that grandpapa looked vexed. So we waited, and as soon as he had finished part of his breakfast, he began:

"When I went into the yard this morning, I found Thomas (our gardener) talking with a stranger, who was carrying a basket covered over, so that at first I could not see what was in it; but he slipped off the cover, and then I perceived well enough a fine Cochin-China cock and hen, which the man wanted to sell. I thought you, May and Arthur, might like to have another variety among your poultry, so I paid the man the price and sent him away. Then I opened the basket and let the two prisoners run out; and very glad they were to stretch their long legs, and flap their cramped wings. I gave them a good breakfast, and thought they were all going to be very happy together, and went off for my walk round the kitchen garden.

""I was stepping across the lawn on my return, intending to go into the house by the glass door of the parlour, when I fancied I heard an unusual noise in the yard. I went to see what it was about, and to my dismay found our Jack fighting with all his strength at the tall Cochin-China cock, first pecking at his breastfeathers, and then trying to dig his bill into his eyes. It was a dreadful sight to behold Jack's rage and cruel spite. So eager, so furious was he, that he paid not the least attention to my call; so after several pulls at his tail, to get him away from the poor beaten, strange cock, I was obliged at last to seize him boldly by the head and legs, and there hold him tight until somebody came to help me."