er, and persuading her by degrees to
feed from my hand, like the rest. This was very good: but it did not
stop here. Whether Mrs. Hen was flattered by so much attention, or
whether she was desirous of making up for her former rudeness, or how it
was, I don't know; but she became so unreasonably fond of me, that if a
door or window were opened she would pop in to look for her friend,
running up and down stairs, into the parlour, the drawing-room, the
bed-rooms, and making no little work for the servants. At first, every
body was amused at it; but, after a time, the poor hen became so
troublesome that we were obliged to give her away. Jack, the dumb boy,
would put his hands to his sides, and laugh till he lost his breath, to
see "my fat hen," as he called her, waddling after me, without minding
either dogs or strangers, and he was in great trouble when she was sent
away. Jack's care of the poultry, and his anxiety to prevent their being
hunted, or hurt, would have delighted you. Nothing pleased him better
than to see that fine fellow, the cock, when he had scratched up or
found any nice thing, calling the hens and chickens about him, bidding
them take it, and never seeming even to wish for it himself. Jack used
to say, "Good; beautiful! God made poor bird." When he was a little boy,
he had seen some cock-fighting; and he used to tell me of it, in his
way, with so much grief and anger. He said, "God see bad man hurt poor
birds--make birds fight." The tears would come into his eyes, when he
thought how the birds were tortured; but he always ended by pitying the
men and boys who suffered Satan to tempt them into such wickedness, for
which they would be dreadfully punished at last.

Jack was very fond of small birds: I suppose you think, then, that he
had some in a cage; and that he caught them in traps, for he was very
ingenious. No; Jack would as soon, and sooner, have gone to prison
himself. He could not bear the idea of imprisoning a bird. Canaries,
indeed, and such others as could not live in our cold climate, and
which, having been hatched in a cage, would not have known how to use
their liberty, he did not object to, but took great pleasure in giving
them pans or saucers of clean water, to bathe themselves in; and plenty
of fresh sand, and nice food: but most birds he could not bear to see
within the bars of a prison. The robin, the thrush, the blackbird, the
linnet, the sparrow, he knew it was a sin to deprive of their