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world, recking little or nothing of the Herakleophorbia concealed in
that white bundle that struggled so persistently towards its orderly
retirement.
VII.
So far as I can gather, the pullets came into Hickleybrow about three
o'clock in the afternoon. Their coming must have been a brisk affair,
though nobody was out in the street to see it. The violent bellowing of
little Skelmersdale seems to have been the first announcement of
anything out of the way. Miss Durgan of the Post Office was at the
window as usual, and saw the hen that had caught the unhappy child, in
violent flight up the street with its victim, closely pursued by two
others. You know that swinging stride of the emancipated athletic
latter-day pullet! You know the keen insistence of the hungry hen! There
was Plymouth Rock in these birds, I am told, and even without
Herakleophorbia that is a gaunt and striding strain.
Probably Miss Durgan was not altogether taken by surprise. In spite of
Mr. Bensington's insistence upon secrecy, rumours of the great chicken
Mr. Skinner was producing had been about the village for some weeks.
"Lor!" she cried, "it's what I expected."
She seems to have behaved with great presence of mind. She snatched up
the sealed bag of letters that was waiting to go on to Urshot, and
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