"Run out to the barn, An-nie and see if you can find some eggs. I mean to make cake this morn-ing and I shall want four or five," said Mrs. Brown to her lit-tle daugh-ter, An-nie, who had been help-ing her moth-er in the kit-chen work. Hunt-ing for hen's eggs was great fun for the chil-dren at Brown Farm. Some-times two of them would go out to-geth-er, and each would try to get more eggs than the oth-er, and be the first to reach the kit-chen with a cap or hat full. EGGS IN THE HAY MOW An-nie placed a short light lad-der a-gainst a high beam in the barn, climbed up and just as she reached the top, her bright eyes peep-ing in through the hay piled up on the barn-loft floor, she saw a nice hol-low place, some-thing like a small cave, where one wise bid-dy had scratched out a co-sy nest for her-self, and laid some five large eggs. The hen had gone out for a walk or for a lunch-eon, so An-nie took four of the eggs, put them in-to the crown of her hat, and hast-ened back to give them to her moth-er. "May I not beat them up for you, with the whirl-i-gig beat-er, moth-er, it is so much fun?" "Yes, you may, An-nie, and it will be quite a help to me." So on through the morn-ing the lit-tle girl found man-y a use-ful and plea-sant thing to do. When the work was all done and an out-ing had been planned for the af-ter-noon, Mrs. Brown said to An-nie, "This lit-tle verse comes to my mind. I think one of my old-er chil-dren once learned it at school. It is, "Work while you work, Play while you play, That is the way To be hap-py and gay. All that you do Do with all your might; Things done by halves Are nev-er done right." EGGS IN THE HAY MOW |