et grass, to the
hen-house, in his dressing-gown and slippers, he was so eager to pluck
this new fruit.

He came in empty-handed, but cheerful.

"We could hardly expect them to lay the first day; they have got to
get their bearings."

Every morning before breakfast Steve took this little walk. There was
soon a well-beaten track between the back door and the hen-house. He
always returned empty-handed, and Nannie watched with an impish smile
from an upper window.

One morning she came upon him in the act of taking off a white
door-knob.

"What _are_ you doing?" she demanded.

He looked guilty, but answered with a fair show of spirit:

"I'm going to put this in one of the nests. You see, they must think a
hen has been there and laid it."

Nannie burst into a laugh.

"Well, I wouldn't waste time eating the eggs of hens that would be
such fools as to think any poor old chicken had laid that door-knob!"

But Steve put it in, nevertheless.

And still morning after morning, with lowered head and dragging
footstep, he returned to the house alone--still alone; not so much as
a single egg as companion.

Then it was that a pair of imp-like, black eyes danced 'neath the
careless ringlets above them.

"How would you like your door-knob this morning--hard or soft?"

This raillery went on day after day until even Steve--gentle, patient
Steve had enough.

He looked up at the window and said quietly, but firmly:

"There, Nannie, drop it, if you please."

"On toast?" she screamed, and Steve went into the house.

But his triumph was near at hand, for one morning, about four weeks
after he had bought the chickens, he discovered something besides the
door-knob in one of the nests, and forthwith came strutting toward the
house, holding the egg on high that Nannie might see it from the
window of her room.

Hearing no noise he looked up. Was she dead? Ah, no! There she sat,
straining her eyes through a field-glass to see the yield of his first
month.

"Mix well," she called to him, "thirteen hens, one rooster, one
door-knob, and one month, and you'll have a delicious egg."

And again Steve got into the house.

He was obliged to come out again later on, for there were many things
upon this miniature plantation which were clamoring for attention.
Indeed, Steve was slowly coming to believe in communities, such
associations meaning in his mind a body of men banded together to run
a small acre of ground; one man attend