LESSON IV.
STORIES ABOUT CHICKENS.
1. Sometimes ducks' eggs are placed under the hen, and she hatches out a brood of young ducks. As soon as they are out of the shell they make for the water, and plunge in and have a swim.
2. The old hen can not understand this. She keeps out of the water when she can. She thinks her chicks will be drowned, and she flies about in great distress until they come out.
3. At an inn in Scotland a brood of chickens was hatched out in cold weather, and they all died. The old hen at once adopted a little pig, not old enough to take care of himself, that was running about the farm-yard.
4. She would cluck for him to come when she had round something to eat, and, when he shivered with cold, she would warm him under her wings. The pig soon learned the hen's ways, and the two kept together, the best of friends, until the pig grew up, and did not need her help any more.
5. There is another story of a hen that adopted three little kittens, and kept them under her wings for a long time, not letting their mother go near them. The old cat, however, watched her chance, and carried off the kittens one by one to a place of safety.