The Proud Old Cochin.

The Proud Old Cochin.
272.2

There was a fat old Cochin hen.
Vainglorious and proud:
And every time she laid an egg.
She cackled long and loud.
One day she found a goose egg in
The bottom of her nest;
And thinking she had laid it there,
She did her level best.
She cackled, cackled-all the Spring,
The Summer, and the Fall;
She cackled through the Winter-and
She never stopped at all.
She cackled on; until, at last
Of rest and sleep bereft,
She was a walking skeleton
With but the cackle left.
-J. B. Naylor