CHAPTER XXVI.
THE OLD SHANGHAI ROOSTER.
Much of Aunt Sarah's spare time was devoted to her chickens, which fully repaid her for the care given them.

She was not particular about fancy stock, but had quite a variety--White Leghorns, Brown Leghorns, big, fat, motherly old Brahma hens that had raised a brood of as many as thirty-five little chicks at one time, a few snow-white, large Plymouth Rocks and some gray Barred one.

The _latter_ she _liked_ particularly because she said they were much, more talkative than any of the others; they certainly did appear to chatter to her when she fed them.

She gave them clean, comfortable quarters, warm bran mash on cold winter mornings, alternating with cracked corn and "scratch feed" composed of a mixture of cracked corn, wheat and buckwheat, scattered over a litter of dried leaves on the floor of the chicken house, so they were obliged to work hard for their food.
[Illustration: Old Egg Basket] A plentiful supply of fresh water was always at hand, as well as cracked oyster shell.

She also fed the chickens all scraps from the table, cutting all meat scraps fine with an old pair of scissors hung conveniently in the kitchen.
She was very successful with the little chicks hatched out when she "set" a hen and the yield of eggs from her hens was usually greater and the eggs larger in size than those of any of her neighbors.