d scuttled away into the bushes with the parent birds upon
being disturbed.

Charley and Hubert made no remark at breakfast upon the success of their
expedition; but when Charley went two days after to Rosario, he procured
from Mr. Percy, who kept a quantity of chickens, two sitting hens. These
were placed with their nests in the bullock-cart in a hamper; and Mrs.
Hardy, who had no idea of the purpose to which they were to be put, was
quite pleased, on their arrival at Mount Pleasant, at this addition to
the stock. Indeed it had been long agreed that they would keep hens as
soon as the maize was ripe. The next morning the boys went again, and
brought back twenty eggs of various kinds of wild duck, including four
swans' eggs,--to obtain which they had to shoot the parent birds, which
furnished the larder for days,--which they placed under the hens in
place of their own eggs, and then took the girls in triumph to see this
commencement of their tame duck project. The little girls were
delighted, and it was an immense amusement to them to go down constantly
to see if the eggs were hatched, as of course no one could tell how long
they had been sat upon previous to being taken. They had remarked that
four of the eggs were much larger than the others, but had no idea that
they were swans'. In the course of a few days six of the young ducklings
were hatched, and the hens were both so unhappy at their difficulty of
continuing to sit while they had the care of their young ones on their
mind, that one hen and all the little ones were removed to a distance
from the other's nest, and the whole of the eggs were put under the
remaining hen. The four swans and five more ducks were safely hatched,
when the hen refused to sit longer, and the remaining eggs were lost.
Now that the swans were safely hatched, the boys told their sisters what
they really were, and their delight was extreme.

In a few days they were all taken down to the dam, and soon found their
way into the water, to the great distress of their foster mother, who
was obliged to stand upon the bank calling in vain till the little ones
chose to come ashore. A hencoop was soon knocked together from an old
box, and this was placed near the dam, and ere long the hens became
accustomed to the fancy of their charges for the water, and would walk
about picking up insects while the little ones swam about on the pond.
Twice a day the girls went down to feed them with grain and bits o