Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/41



upon a time, a certain Padre had a negro servant, who thought himself very sly and clever at expedients. One morning the Padre told the negro to cook a chicken for his dinner. The negro did so, but when he dished it the savoury smell from the roast chicken so whetted his appetite that he cut off a leg and ate it, and then arranged it on the dish so that his master should not detect what was wanting. The Padre, however, soon discovered that there was a leg wanting to the bird, and, turning to his servant, he asked him: "Did you cut a leg off the chicken and eat it?"

"No, sir, I did no such thing; the chicken had only one leg when it was alive."

"Do you think I am such a fool as to believe that?"

"Oh, dear father, there's a number of other hens in the poultry yard strutting about with only one leg, and