accompanied only by her two little
children and one old man-servant.

They found refuge in a small mining village in the mountains, where the
simple but contented and happy inhabitants did what they could for their
comfort, and placed the best of all they had at the disposal of the
wanderers. Nevertheless, their fare was miserable; no meat was ever to be
found, seldom fish, and not even an egg; this last for the very good
reason that there was not a single hen in the village! These useful
domestic fowls, now so common everywhere, were originally brought from the
East, and had not yet found their way to this secluded place. The people
had not even heard of such "strange birds." This troubled the kind
duchess, who well knew the great help they are in housekeeping, and she
determined that the women who had been so kind to her should no longer be
without them.

Accordingly, the next time she sent forth her faithful old servant to try
and gather news of his master and of the progress of the war, she
commissioned him to bring back with him a coop full of fowls. This he did,
to the great surprise of the simple natives, and the village children were
greatly excited a few weeks later at the appearance of a brood of young
chickens. They were so pretty and bright, were covered with such a soft
down, were so open-eyed, and could run about after their mother to pick
up food the very first day, and were altogether such a contrast to the
blind, bald, unfledged, helpless, ugly little birds they sometimes saw in
nests in the hedges, that they could not find words enough to express
their admiration.

The good lady now saved up eggs for some time, then invited all the
housewives of the village to a feast, when she set before them eggs
cooked in a variety of ways. She then taught them how to prepare them for
themselves, and, distributing a number of fowls among them, sent the dames
home grateful and happy.

When Easter approached, she was anxious to arrange some pleasure for the
village children, but had nothing to give them, "not even an apple or a
nut," only some eggs; but that, she concluded, was, after all, an
appropriate offering, "as an egg is the first gift of the reviving
spring." And then it occurred to her to boil them with mosses and roots
that would give them a variety of brilliant colors, "as the earth," said
she, "has just laid aside her white mantle, and decorated herself with
many colors; for the dear God makes the frui