lways laid first upon Kees; and rarely was the accusation unfounded.
For a time, the eggs, which a hen laid me, were constantly stolen away,
and I wished to ascertain whether I had to attribute this loss also to
him. For this purpose I went one morning to watch him, and waited till
the hen announced, by her cackling, that she had laid an egg. Kees was
sitting upon my vehicle; but, the moment he heard the hen's voice, he
leaped down, and was running to fetch the egg. When he saw me, he
suddenly stopped, and affected a careless posture, swaying himself
backwards upon his hind legs, and assuming a very innocent look; in
short, he employed all his art to deceive me with respect to his
design. His hypocritical manoeuvres only confirmed my suspicions;
and, in order, in my turn, to deceive him, I pretended not to attend to
him, and turned my back to the bush where the hen was cackling, upon
which he immediately sprang to the place. I ran after him, and came up
to him at the moment when he had broken the egg, and was swallowing it.
Having caught the thief in the fact, I gave him a good beating upon the
spot; but this severe chastisement did not prevent his soon stealing
fresh-laid eggs again.

"As I was convinced that I should never be able to break Kees off his
natural vices, and that, unless I chained him up every morning, I
should never get an egg, I endeavored to accomplish my purpose in
another manner: I trained one of my dogs, as soon as the hen cackled,
to run to the nest, and bring me the egg, without breaking it. In a few
days, the dog had learned his lesson; but Kees, as soon as he heard the
hen cackle, ran with him to the nest. A contest now took place between
them, who should have the egg: often the dog was foiled, although he
was the stronger of the two. If he gained the victory, he ran joyfully
to me with the egg, and put it into my hand. Kees, nevertheless,
followed him, and did not cease to grumble and make threatening
grimaces at him, till he saw me take the egg,--as if he was comforted
for the loss of his booty by his adversary's not retaining it for
himself. If Kees got hold of the egg, he endeavored to run with it to a
tree, where, having devoured it, he threw down the shells upon his
adversary, as if to make game of him. In that case, the dog returned,
looking ashamed, from which I could conjecture the unlucky adventure he
had met with.

"Kees was always the first awake in the morning, and, when it was the