ce of ineffable glory, called nothing unclean because it was
common, found no homely detail too trivial or too homely to illustrate
the Father's love, but from the birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
the lilies of the field, the stones in the street, the foxes in their
holes, the patch on a coat, the oxen in the furrow, the sheep in the
pit, the camel under his burden, drew lessons of divine pity and
patience, of heavenly duty and delight. Standing in the presence of the
great congregation, seeing, as never man saw, the hypocrisy and the
iniquity gathered before Him,--seeing too, alas! the calamities and the
woe that awaited this doomed people, a god-like pity overbears His
righteous indignation, and cries out in passionate appeal, "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

* * * * *

The agriculturist says that women take care of young chickens much
better than men. I do not know how that may be, but I know that my
experiments with chickens have been attended with a success so brilliant
that unfortunate poultry-fanciers have appealed to me for assistance. I
have even taken ailing chickens from the city to board. A brood of
nineteen had rapidly dwindled down to eleven when it was brought to me,
one even then dying. His little life ebbed away in a few hours; but of
the remaining ten, nine, now in the third week of their abode under my
roof, have recovered health, strength, and spirits, and bid fair to live
to a good old age, if not prematurely cut off. One of them, more feeble
than the others, needed and received especial attention. Him I tended
through dreary days of east wind and rain in a box on the mantel-piece,
nursing him through a severe attack of asthma, feeding and amusing him
through his protracted convalescence, holding him in my hand one whole
Sunday afternoon to relieve him of home-sickness and hen-sickness, and
being rewarded at last by seeing animation and activity come back to his
poor sickly little body. He will never be a robust chicken. He seems to
have a permanent distortion of the spine, and his crop is one-sided; and
if there is any such thing as blind staggers, he has them. Besides, he
has a strong and increasing tendency not to grow. This, however, I
reckon a beauty rather than a b