He laid the hen on a block and took aim, but it was not easy, for she
twisted her head like a snake and would not lie still. She had stopped
cackling now.

"I can feel her heart jumping inside her," said Solem.

Suddenly he saw his chance and struck. There lay the head; Solem still
held the body, which jerked under his hand. The thing was done so quickly
that the two sections of the bird were still one in my eyes; I could not
grasp a separation so sudden and unbelievable, and it took my sight a
second or two to overtake the event. Bewilderment was in the expression of
this detached head, which looked as though it could not believe what had
happened, and raised itself a little as if to show there was nothing the
least bit wrong. Solem let the body go. It lay still for a moment, then
kicked its legs, leaped to the ground and began to hop, the headless body
reeling on one wing till it struck the wall and spattered blood in wide
arcs before it fell at last.

"I let her go too soon after all," said Solem.

Then he went off to fetch another hen.




XVIII


I return to the mad idea of Solem's being discharged. This would, to be
sure, have averted a certain disaster here at the farm: but who would