Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/221

Rh nothin' 'bout my havin' gone ter settin'. I kep' mighty quiet 'bout it, 'cause I is kinder tender in my feelin's when I's a-settin'. I don't want nobody ter be a arskin' me how many eggs I's got in the baid an' then kinder a-holdin' it over me when I don't have good luck 'bout the number er chick'ns I hatches out. I ain't a gonter take the blame er any no-'count rooster."

"Did you have good luck this time?"

"I couldn't er had better! The good Lawd hisse'f couldn't er hatched mo'n fifteen chick'ns outer fifteen aigs. You kin hear fer yo'se'f how lively they is, too. They's already begun to peck a lil' cawn meal dough. Po' lil' things! It do seem kinder hard fer them never ter know they own mother."

"But you are good to them and love them," said Rebecca, peeping under the old skirt and trying to count the fluffy moving balls of feathers.

"Yes, I loves 'em some, but I ain't no sho' 'nough hen an' I ain't able ter take 'em out do's an' larn 'em how ter scratch up worms. When all's told, I ain't nothin' mo'n a incomebaker. I furnishes animule heat same as a hen, an' I tu'ns the aigs every day same as a hen, but I stops short er cluckin' same as a incomebaker."

"Maybe I could learn to cluck and take the