The Heroism Of A Hen
A contest of rather an unusual nature took place in the house of a
respectable innkeeper in Ireland. The parties concerned were, a hen of the
game species, and a rat of the middle size. The hen, in an accidental
perambulation round a spacious room, accompanied by an only chicken, the
sole surviving offspring of a numerous brood, was roused to madness by an
unprovoked attack made by a voracious cowardly rat on her unsuspecting
chirping companion. The shrieks of the beloved captive, while being
dragged away by the enemy, excited every maternal feeling in the
affectionate bosom of the feathered dame; she flew at the corner whence
the alarm arose, seized the lurking enemy by the neck, writhed him about
the room, put out one of his eyes in the engagement, and so fatigued her
opponent by repeated attacks of spur and bill, that in the space of twelve
minutes, during which time the conflict lasted, she put a final period to
the nocturnal invader's existence; nimbly turned round, in wild but
triumphant distraction, to her palpitating nestling, and hugged it in her
victorious bosom.
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