and her brood, I was sitting on the piazza reading the morning paper, when, as I happened to glance up, I noticed a peculiar-shaped shadow moving rapidly across the lawn.
There was no object upon the lawn to make it, and for a second I was puzzled; and this hesitation did the mischief, for as the truth dawned upon me, I glanced up into the sky and a large hawk swooped down upon silent wings, snatched up a little chick but a few feet away from the coop, and flew rapidly away towards the woods.
Madam Cluck called to her chick, and beat her wings and head against the slats of her coop until she fell down senseless. I swung my paper and shouted, but it was of no use. Red Tail had too firm a hold upon his prize, and was too far away to be scared into dropping it. So while the pathetic peeps grew fainter and fainter, the hawk bore the chick far away, and it was never seen again.
Madam Cluck soon revived, and called her remaining nine chickens to her, and hid them under her wings for the rest of the day, they only coming out when I fed them, and then not going out of the coop.
For about a week after this occurrence, everything went well in the family of Madam Cluck. The children grew, and were very happy looking in the dirt for worms and bugs, and bathing in the dust that their mother had provided for them.
