“We’ve still got a little poison left, Nat,” said Janet.
“Oh, I think I’ll use it my heliotrope and early asters. I noticed yesterday that they were covered with lice,” remarked Norma.
“All right. You show me where to shoot and we’ll cover the pests with the poison,” offered Natalie.
So Norma held the plants steady while Paris Green was literally piled on top of the crowns and over all the leaves. Then the preparation gave out and the girls had to desist from further work.
Directly after breakfast, Janet was seen coming from the barn yard and with an egg in each hand. She seemed perplexed and when she reached the kitchen stoop she saw the girls watching her.
“This is the queerest thing, yet,” said she.
“What is?” asked several of the girls.
“Why, just before going in to breakfast I ran over to the chicken-coop to see if the hens had laid any eggs and there wasn’t a thing to be seen. They were all out in the yard eating corn. Then after breakfast I had to go back to feed the setting-hen and there I found an egg in each nest. And they are not warm.”
“I don’t think that is strange,” answered Belle. “It doesn’t take a hen very long to lay an egg, you know.”
“No, that is true,” admitted Janet, twisting herself in such a manner that the girls laughed and wondered what she meant.