large hands with what I thought was criminal carelessness, but
didn't like to say so.

"I've ordered a three-hundred-egg incubator for them," I said proudly, as I
gently took the warm treasures back into my hand. "Incubators are so much
more sanitary and intelligent than hens," I added with all the surety of
the advertisement for the mechanical hen which I had answered with
thirty-five dollars obtained from the sale of the last fluffy petticoat I
had hoped to retain, but which I gave up gladly after reading the
advertisement. Two most lovely chemises had gone for the two brooders that
were to accompany the incubator, and it seemed hard to think that I would
have to wait ten days to receive the fruits of my feminine sacrifice from
the slow shipping service of the railroad.

"Don't ever say that again, Nancy! Hens have more genuine wisdom growing
at the roots of their pin feathers than most women display during the span
of their entire lives, and they make very much better mothers," reproved
Aunt Mary, with sweet firmness. "Just you wait and see which brings out
your prize birds, the wooden box or the hen. When men invent something with
a mother's heart, they had better name it angel and admit that the kingdom
has come. Bless my soul; these biscuits I brought over for you-all's
breakfast are stone-cold!"

"I've had my breakfast a half a day ago," I answered. "You go in and start
father and Uncle Cradd off with the biscuits while I finish the nest
and--and do some more things for my family fortune."

"Child, if you attempt to do the things that Adam wants you to do for and
with live stock you may see miracles being hatched out and born, but you'll
be too worn out to notice 'em. Trap nests indeed! I've got to have some
time to make my water waves and offer daily prayer!" And with this
ejaculation of good-natured indignation, evidently at the memory of sundry
and various poultry prods, Mrs. Silas betook herself to the house with a
beautiful and serene dignity. As she went she stopped to break a sprig from
a huge old lilac that was beginning to burst its brown buds and to put up
half a yard of rambler that trailed across the path with its treacherous
thorns.

"Your lilacs are breaking scent already," she called back to me over her
shoulder.

A woman can experience no greater sensation of joy than that which she
feels when she first realizes that she is the mistress of a lilac bush.
Neither her debut dance nor her first