od firm, and regarded her with maliciously delighted eyes.
Teether bobbed his head over her shoulder and giggled with ungrateful
delight The poor little chicks peeped sleepily, but still Spangles held
her ground. The truth of the matter was that Dominick had really taken
the coop usually occupied by her ladyship, and with worldly
determination, the scion of all the Wyandottes was holding out against
the exchange.

With a glance out of the side of her eyes from under her lowered lashes
in the direction of Doctor Mayberry in his stern attitude, the singer
lady cautiously veered around to the rear of the insulted grandee, and,
grasping her fluffy skirts in her free hand, she shook them out with a
pleading "Shoo!" Instantly a perfect whirlwind of spangled feathers
veered around and faced the cascade of frills, and a volume of defiant
hisses fairly filled the air. Teether squealed and Miss Wingate
retreated to the bounds of the fence. The Doctor laughed in the most
heartless manner, and still Spangles held her ground.

To make matters worse, Mother Mayberry's jovial voice, mingled with the
shrill treble of the combined circus party, who were trying all at once
to tell her the wonders of the adventure, could be distinctly heard in
an increasing volume that told of their rapid approach. The situation
was desperate, and the loss of Mother Mayberry's faith in her seemed
inevitable to the nonplussed singer lady as she leaned against the
fence with Teether over her shoulder. Then the instinct that is
centuries old presented to her the wile that is of equal antiquity and,
raising her purple eyes to the defenseless Doctor, she murmured in a
voice of utter helplessness, into which was judiciously mingled a tone
of perfect confidence:

"Please, sir, get her in for me."

The response to which, being foreordained from the beginning of time,
took Doctor Mayberry just one exciting half-minute grab and shove to
accomplish, at the end of which a ruffled but chastened Spangles was
forced to assemble her family and content herself behind the bars of
the despised coop.

"Well," said Mother Mayberry as she hurried around the corner of the
house with the depleted and milk-hungry Martin Luther trailing at her
skirts, "did you make out to manage 'em? Why, ain't that fine; every
one in and settled and Fuss-and-Feathers in that end coop where I have
been wanting her to be for a week, seeing Dominick have got so many
more chickens and needs tha