.
"You 'bout the stingiest Peter they is. Ain't you got no eggs? Get Miss
Minerva to give you some of hers and I'll take 'em over and ask Miss
Cecilia to dye 'em for you 'cause you ain't 'quainted with her yet."

"Aunt Minerva ain't got none 'cep'in' what she put under a of hen fer to
set this mornin':"

"Can't you get 'em from under the old hen? Miss Minerva is such a
Christian woman, she ain't--"

"You done fool me 'bout that 'ligious business befo'," interrupted
Billy, "an' I got put to bed in the daytime."

"Well, she won't never miss two or three eggs," coaxed Jimmy. "How many
did she put under the old hen?"

"She put fifteen," was the response, "an' I don't believe she'd want me
to tech 'em."

"They 're 'bout the prettiest eggs ever was," continued the tempter,
"all blue and pink and green, and 'bout a million kinds. They're just
perzactly like rabbit's eggs."

"Me an' Wilkes Booth Lincoln ain't never hear teller no rabbit's eggs
sence we's born," said Billy; "I don't berlieve rabbits lays eggs
nohow."

"They don' lay 'em 'cept to Easter," said Jimmy. "Miss Cecilia 'splained
it all to me and she's my Sunday-School teacher and rabbits is bound
to lay eggs 'cause it's in the Bible and she's 'bout the prettiest
'splainer they is. I'm going over there now to see 'bout my eggs," and
he made believe to leave the swing.

"Le's us slip roun' to the hen-house an' see what the of hen's a-doin',"
suggested the sorely tempted Billy. "Aunt Minerva is a-makin' me some
nightshirts an' she ain't takin' no notice of nothin' else."

They tiptoed stealthily around the house to the back-yard, but found the
hen-house door locked.

"Can't you get the key?" asked the younger child.

"Naw, I can't," replied the other boy, "but you can git in th'oo
this-here little hole what the chickens goes in at, whiles I watches fer
Aunt Minerva. I'll stand right here an' hol' my cap whiles you fetches
me the eggs. An' don't you take more 'n five or six," he warned.

"I'm skeered of the old hen," objected Jimmy. "Is she much of a pecker?"

"Naw, she ain't a-goin' to hurt you," was the encouraging reply. "Git up
an' crawl th'oo; I'll help you."

Billy, having overcome his scruples, now entered into the undertaking
with great zest.

Jimmy climbed the chicken ladder, kicked his chubby legs through the
aperture, hung suspended on his fat little middle for an instant, and
finally, with much panting and tugging, wriggled his plump, roun