1. I had once a favorite black hen, "a great beauty," as she was called by
everyone, and so I thought her; her feathers were so jetty, and her
topping so white and full! She knew my voice as well as any dog, and used
to run cackling and bustling to my hand to receive the fragments that I
never failed to collect from the breakfast table for "Yarico," as she was
called.
2. Yarico, by the time she was a year old, hatched a respectable family of
chickens; little, cowering, timid things at first, but, in due time, they
became fine chubby ones; and old Norah said, "If I could only keep Yarico
out of the copse, it would do; but the copse is full of weasels and of
foxes.
3. "I have driven her back twenty times; but she watches till some one
goes out of the gate, and then she's off again. It is always the case with
young hens, Miss; they think they know better than their keepers; and
nothing cures them but losing a brood or two of chickens." I have often
thought since that young people, as well as young hens, buy their
experience equally dear.
4. One morning; after breakfast, I went to seek my favorite in the poultry
yard; plenty of hens were there, but no Yarico. The gate was open, and, as
I concluded she had sought the forbidden copse, I proceeded there,
accompanied by the yard mastiff; a noble fellow, steady and sagacious as a
judge.
5. At the end of a lane, flanked on one side by a quickset hedge, on the
other by a wild common, what was called the copse commenced; but before I
arrived near the spot I heard a loud and tremendous cackling, and met two
young, long-legged pullets, running with both wings and feet toward home.
Jock pricked up his sharp ears, and would have set off at full gallop to
the copse; but I restrained him, hastening onward, however, at the top of
my speed, thinking I had as good a right to see what was the matter as
Jock.
6. Poor Yarico! An impertinent fox cub had attempted to carry off one of
her children; but she had managed to get them behind her in the hedge, and
venturing boldly forth had placed herself in front, and positively kept
the impudent animal at bay. His desire for plunder had prevented his
noticing our approach, and Jock soon made him feel the superiority of an
English mastiff over a cub fox.
7. The most interesting portion of my tale is to come. Yarico not only
never afterward ventured to the copse, but formed a strong friendship for
the dog which had preserved her family. Whenever he appeared in the yard,
she would run to meet him, prating and clucking all the time, and impeding
his progress by walking between his legs, to his no small annoyance. If
any other dog entered the yard, she would fly at him most furiously,
thinking, perhaps, that he would injure her chickens; but she evidently
considered Jock her especial protector, and treated him accordingly.
8. It was very droll to see the peculiar look with which he regarded his
feathered friend; not knowing exactly what to make of her civilities, and
doubting how they should be received. When her family were educated, and
able to do without her care, she was a frequent visitor at Jock's kennel,
and would, if permitted, roost there at night, instead of returning with
the rest of the poultry to the henhouse. Yarico certainly was a most
grateful and interesting bird. * *
9. One could almost believe a parrot had intellect, when he keeps up a
conversation so spiritedly; and it is certainly singular to observe how
accurately a well-trained bird will apply his knowledge. A friend of mine
knew one that had been taught many sentences; thus, "Sally, Poll wants her
breakfast!" "Sally, Poll wants her tea!" but she never mistook the one for
the other; breakfast was invariably demanded in the morning, and tea in
the afternoon; and she always hailed her master, but no one else, by "How
do you do, Mr. A?"
10. She was a most amusing bird, and could whistle dogs, which she had
great pleasure in doing. She would drop bread out of her cage as she hung
at the street door, and whistle a number about her, and then, just as they
were going to possess themselves of her bounty, utter a shrill scream of
"Get out, dogs!" with such vehemence and authority as dispersed the
assembled company without a morsel, to her infinite delight. * * *
11. How wonderful is that instinct by which the bird of passage performs
its annual migration! But how still more wonderful is it when the bird,
after its voyage of thousands of miles has been performed, and new lands
visited, returns to the precise window or eaves where, the summer before,
it first enjoyed existence! And yet, such is unquestionably the fact.
12. Four brothers had watched with indignation the felonious attempts of a
sparrow to possess himself of the nest of a house martin, in which lay its
young brood of four unfledged birds.
13. The little fellows considered themselves as champions for the bird
which had come over land and sea, and chosen its shelter under their
mother's roof. They therefore marshaled themselves with blowguns, to
execute summary vengeance; but their well-meant endeavors brought
destruction upon the mud-built domicile they wished to defend. Their
artillery loosened the foundations, and down it came, precipitating its
four little inmates to the ground. The mother of the children, Good
Samaritan-like, replaced the little outcasts in their nest, and set it in
the open window of an unoccupied chamber.
14. The parent birds, after the first terror was over, did not appear
disconcerted by the change of situation, but hourly fed their young as
usual, and testified, by their unwearied twitter of pleasure, the
satisfaction and confidence they felt. There the young birds were duly
fledged, and from that window they began their flight, and entered upon
life.
15. The next spring, with the reappearance of the martins, came four,
which familiarly flew into the chamber, visited all the walls, and
expressed their recognition by the most clamorous twitterings of joy. They
were, without question, the very birds that had been bred there the
preceding year.
DEFINITIONS.--2. Copse, a grove of small trees or bushes. 4. Sa-ga'cious,
quick in discernment. 6. Im-per'ti-nent, rude, intru-sive. 8. Ken'nel, a
place for dogs. 10. Ve'he-mence, force. 11. Mi-gra'tion, change of place,
removal. 12. Fe-lo'ni-ous, criminal. 13. Dom'i-cile, the home or residence
of anyone. Ar-til'er-y, weapons of warfare. 14. Dis-con-cert'ed,
interrupted, confused. 15. Rec-og-ni'tion, recollection of a former
acquaintance.