The Diary of a Goose Girl
Page 5
CHAPTER V
July 10th.
At ten thirty or so in the morning the cackling begins. I wonder exactlywhat it means! Have the forest-lovers who listen so respectfully to, andinterpret so exquisitely, the notes of birds--have none of them madepsychological investigations of the hen cackle? Can it be simpleelation? One could believe that of the first few eggs, but a hen who haslaid two or three hundred can hardly feel the same exuberant pride andjoy daily. Can it be the excitement incident to successful achievement?Hardly, because the task is so extremely simple. Eggs are more or lessalike; a little larger or smaller, a trifle whiter or browner; and almostsure to be quite right as to details; that is, the big end never getsconfused with the little end, they are always ovoid and never spherical,and the yolk is always inside of the white. As for a soft-shelled egg,it is so rare an occurrence that the fear of laying one could not set thewhole race of hens in a panic; so there really cannot be any intellectualor emotional agitation in producing a thing that might be made by amachine. Can it be simply "fussiness"; since the people who have theleast to do commonly make the most flutter about doing it?
Perhaps it is merely conversation. "_Cut-cut-cut-cut-cut_-DAH_cut_! . . .I have finished my strictly fresh egg, have you laid yours? Makehaste, then, for the cock has found a gap in the wire-fence and wants usto wander in the strawberry-bed. . . . Cut-cut-cut-cut-cut-DAH_cut_ . . .Every moment is precious, for the Goose Girl will find us, when shegathers the strawberries for her luncheon . . . Cut-cut-cut-cut! On theway out we can find sweet places to steal nests . . . Cut-cut-cut! . . .I am so glad I am not sitting this heavenly morning; it _is_ a dulllife."
A Lancashire poultryman drifted into Barbury Green yesterday. He is anold acquaintance of Mr. Heaven, and spent the night and part of the nextday at Thornycroft Farm. He possessed a deal of fowl philosophy, andtells many a good hen story, which, like fish stories, draw ratherlargely on the credulity of the audience. We were sitting in therickyard talking comfortably about laying and cackling and kindredmatters when he took his pipe from his mouth and told us the followingtale--not a bad one if you can translate the dialect:--
'Aw were once towd as, if yo' could only get th' hen's egg away afooarshe hed sin it, th' hen 'ud think it hed med a mistek an' sit deawnageean an' lay another.
"An' it seemed to me it were a varra sensible way o' lukkin' at it. Sooaaw set to wark to mek a nest as 'ud tek a rise eawt o' th' hens. An' awdud it too. Aw med a nest wi' a fause bottom, th' idea bein' as when ahen hed laid, th' egg 'ud drop through into a box underneyth.
"Aw felt varra preawd o' that nest, too, aw con tell yo', an' aw rememberaw felt quite excited when aw see an awd black Minorca, th' best layer asaw hed, gooa an' settle hersel deawn i' th' nest an' get ready for wark.Th' hen seemed quite comfortable enough, aw were glad to see, an' geetthrough th' operation beawt ony seemin' trouble.
"Well, aw darsay yo' know heaw a hen carries on as soon as it's laid aegg. It starts "chuckin'" away like a showman's racket, an' aftertekkin' a good Ink at th' egg to see whether it's a big 'un or a little'un, gooas eawt an' tells all t'other hens abeawt it.
"Neaw, this black Minorca, as aw sed, were a owdish bird, an' maybe knewmooar than aw thowt. Happen it hed laid on a nest wi' a fause bottomafooar, an' were up to th' trick, but whether or not, aw never see a henluk mooar disgusted i' mi life when it lukked i' th' nest an' see as ithed hed all that trouble fer nowt.
"It woked reawnd th' nest as if it couldn't believe its own eyes.
"But it dudn't do as aw expected. Aw expected as it 'ud sit deawn ageeanan' lay another.
"But it just gi'e one wonderin' sooart o' chuck, an then, after a longstare reawnd th' hen-coyt, it woked eawt, as mad a hen as aw've ever sin.Aw fun' eawt after, what th' long stare meant. It were tekkin' farewell!For if yo'll believe me that hen never laid another egg i' ony o' mynests.
"Varra like it laid away in a spot wheear it could hev summat to luk atwhen it hed done wark for th' day.
"Sooa aw lost mi best layer through mi actin', an' aw've never inventedowt sen."