I just flew to the field on my bicycle, and truly there was the whole field covered with tiny dark gray green leaves! I was perfectly delighted, for I had not supposed it would come so quickly and had no idea the stand could be so thick after all my tribulations.
Just before lunch S. came, bringing some friends with her—they wished to see how I turned the eggs in the incubator, and so I took the tray out to show them, and as I was putting it down on the table I heard a very soft chirp, which startled me so that I nearly dropped the whole thing.
Somehow I had not realized that the time was so near for the climax, but to-night as I was going to bed I went for a last look, and there was one little chick, white and fluffy and very lively. I wonder if that is to be the only one.
April 28.
The whole incubator seems to have turned into chickens. I never saw anything like it but a swarm of bees. As soon as I got up this morning I rushed down to the incubator, and there they were!
I called Chloe at once, and she stood in front of the glass door and gazed with wondering eyes, then she dropped a profound courtesy, and, raising her eyes and hands to heaven, she said, "T'ank de Laud," and this was repeated three times with intense fervor and reverence. Then she seized my hand and shook it violently.
Only then did I understand how much self-control Chloe had used not to show me more plainly her utter doubt and scorn of the 'cubator. I knew she did not approve, but had no idea that she felt certain we would never see a chicken from it. Her delight is unbounded.
The book of instructions says you must not open the door at all after the eggs begin to pip, but I had to open it very quickly and take out the egg-shells which were so much in the way of the chicks. It is too bad that they sent the brooder without any lamp, and so I cannot take the chicks out as I should do when they are twelve hours old.
The incubator must be kept at from 105 degrees, and the newly hatched chicks only 101 degrees, or at most 102, and so I am afraid of roasting the chicks or chilling the eggs.
April 29.