The Speckled Hen.
Dear Brother Ben, I take my pen
To tell you where, and how, and when,
I found the nest of our speckled hen.
She never would lay in a sensible way,
Like other hens, in the barn on the hay;
But here and there and everywhere,
On the stable floor, and the wood-house stair,
And once, on the ground her eggs I found.
But yesterday I ran away,