Now Master Fred Little John had been allowed to have these hens by
his mamma on the condition that he would build their house himself,
and take all the care of it; and to do Master Fred justice, he
executed the job in a small way quite creditably. He chose a sunny
sloping bank covered with a thick growth of bushes, and erected there
a nice little hen-house with two glass windows, a little door, and a
good pole for his family to roost on. He made, moreover, a row of
nice little boxes with hay in them for nests, and he bought three or
four little smooth white china eggs to put in them, so that, when his
hens DID lay, he might carry off their eggs without their being
missed. This hen-house stood in a little grove that sloped down to a
wide river, just where there was a little cove which reached almost
to the hen-house.

This situation inspired one of Master Fred's boy advisers with a new
scheme in relation to his poultry enterprise. "Hallo! I say, Fred,"
said Tom Seymour, "you ought to raise ducks; you've got a capital
place for ducks there."

"Yes; but I've bought HENS, you see," said Freddy; "so it's no use
trying."

"No use! Of course there is. Just as if your hens couldn't hatch
ducks' eggs. Now you just wait till one of your hens wants to sit,
and you put ducks' eggs under her, and you'll have a family of ducks
in a twinkling. You can buy ducks' eggs a plenty of old Sam under
the hill. He always has hens hatch his ducks."

So Freddy thought it would be a good experiment, and informed his
mother the next morning that he intended to furnish the ducks for the