She calmly took hold of one of them with her bill and lifted it out of the nest.

She continued this process of eviction until they were all removed, when she quietly sat down again.
[Illustration: Slowly her right hand rose above her] I mention this only to show that the hen and I had come to terms of intimacy and mutual understanding.

So when I saw Wills' dog catch and kill her in the field one day, where she was hunting for grasshoppers, I naturally entertained a feeling of resentment.

I heard the cries of the hen and ran through the orchard and witnessed the end of the tragedy and more.

Away down in the meadow I saw the dog and farther away "the Wills boy," as we then called him, running toward his home.