SENSITIVE HEN.

"Yas," declared a new man on the country court jury, to his companions the
other noon, "I maintain that hens has souls jest as does human bein's.
Mebbe not all on 'em, but now an' then you strike a bird that has
reasonin' faculties an' feelin' an' 'motions jest as you an' me. They has
their joys and their sorrers. So, I says, they has souls. Now here's
proof.

"I had a fine Plymouth Rock what was a master layer. When th' other hens
was takin' a vacation she was 'tendin' ter business an' layin' aigs. Well,
one day she come out a-cacklin' an' I went in ter git th' aig.

"It 'pears that while she was tellin' me about it, my boy, Willum, took
th' aig an' put a hard-boiled one in its place. Did it fer a joke on me,
ye know. I noticed the aig looked kinder queer an' cracked her open. Well,
if ever ye see a hen look dumfounded! She thought she'd layed it.

"I thought nothin' 'bout it till I looked down, an' hanged if she wasn't
cryin'. Big tears was rollin' down her furrered cheeks an' I tried ter
tell her that she was all right, that 'twas some of Willum's horseplay,
but she jest sighed kinder human like an' walked slowly off. Th' next day
she didn't lay, but moped 'round the' yard sad an' homesick like. Well, it
went on fer a week an' still nary an aig.

"Then I noticed she was quittin' th' feed I was givin' her, an' tryin' ter
pick up a livin'. She had a conscience, ye see, an' wouldn't eat boughten
food 'less she could repay me in the right kind of aigs.

"She knowed she wan't looked to ter lay hard-boiled aigs as she thought
she'd done. 'Father,' says Willum one day, 'I guess we're goin' ter lose
that hen. She's thinkin' up something desperate. I just caught her 'xamin'
a scythe out back of th' barn.'

"Well, we tried our best ter cheer her up, but 'twan't no use. One day I
found her in the tool-house, dead. She had dragged her neck across a
scythe, cuttin' her throat.

"Over in one corner was a aig jest left ter show me that she intended ter
do what's right. But if ever I see'd a clear case of suicide, her death
was one. So, I says, some' hens has feelin's jest as does a human bein',
an' therefore I 'low they has souls."--_Rochester Post-Express._

PEWTER'S INDUSTRIAL BUGS.

Silas Pewter, of Hendricks township, Chautauqua County, who discovered the
adamant bug, is getting rich fast off his discovery. It was in August when
he discovered the bugs, and several weeks had passed away before he coul