Winnie already had three hens sitting on their nests full of eggs, and she was counting the days until the three weeks of incubation should expire, and the little chicks break their shells.  One of the hens proved a fickle biddy, and left her nest, much to the child’s anger and disgust.  But the others were faithful, and one morning Winnie came bounding in, saying she had heard the first “peep.”  I told her to be patient and leave the brood until the following day, since I had read that the chicks were stronger for not being taken from the nest too soon.  She had treated the mother hens so kindly that they were tame, and permitted her to throw out the empty shells, and exult over each new-comer into a brief existence.

Our radishes had come up nicely; but no sooner had the first green leaves expanded than myriads of little flea-like beetles devoured them.  A timely article in my horticultural paper explained that if little chickens were allowed to run in the garden they would soon destroy these and other insects.  Therefore I improvised a coop by laying down a barrel near the radishes and driving stakes in front of it to confine the hen, which otherwise, with the best intentions, would have scratched up all my sprouting seeds.  Hither we brought her the following day, with her downy brood of twelve, and they soon began to make themselves useful.  Winnie fed them with Indian-meal and mashed potatoes and watched over them with more than their mother’s solicitude, while Merton renewed his vigilance against hawks and other enemies.

With this new attraction, and wildflowers in the woods, the tying up of raspberries became weary prose to Winnie and Bobsey; but I kept them at it during most of the forenoon of every pleasant day and if they performed their task carelessly, I made them do it over.  I knew that the time was coming when many kinds of work would cease to be play to us all, and that we might as well face the fact first as last.  After the morning duties were over, and the afternoon lessons learned, there was plenty of time for play, and the two little people enjoyed it all the more.

Merton, also, had two afternoons in the week and he and Junior began to bring home strings of sweet little sunfish and winfish.  Boys often become disgusted with country life because it is made hard and monotonous for them.

CHAPTER XXVII

Strawberry visions and “PERTATERS”

I had decided that I would not set out any more raspberries until I had learned the comparative value of those already on the place.  After I had seen my varieties in bearing and marketed the crop, I should be better able to make a wise selection, “Why not plant only the best and most profitable?” I reasoned.  At Mr. Jones’s suggestion I had put up notices at public resorts, and inserted a brief advertisement in a local paper, stating that I had plants for sale.  As a result, I sold, at a low price, it is true, the greater part of the young plants that had been trenched in, and the ready money they brought was very acceptable.