Illustrated Science for Boys and Girls Part 8

"PUFF! BANG! _Crack!_" went something, causing August, Katie and Robbie to start violently, while poor Tommy, with his hands to his eyes, rolled over on the floor with a groan.

"Mamma, oh! mamma!" screamed Katie, "the lamp is 'sploded!"

"And Tommy's killed!" shrieked Robbie.

Mamma flew up the stairs and to Tommy.

"Oh! his eyes!" she cried. "Quick, August, water!"

"Oh! my poor Tommy!" sobbed little Robbie. "See him all b'eedin', b'eedin'!"

August came running with the water, and knelt down and held the basin while Katie flew for a sponge and soft linen.

When the blood was washed off, and his smarting eyes had been bathed with fresh, cool water, Tommy discovered that he had been more frightened than hurt; and mamma and the rest were greatly relieved to find his worst wound, a slight cut between the eyes, could be cured by court-plaster.

It was a great wonder, however, that more harm had not been done; for when the child blew so forcibly down the chimney, the wick shot up out of the lamp and the chimney s.h.i.+vered in pieces; one of the pieces had struck his face, making the cut, while the hot air and smoke flas.h.i.+ng into his eyes caused them to smart fiercely. August had neglected to fill the lamp at the proper time, and the oil had burned nearly out. It was the sudden forcing of air down the tube which caused the explosion.

"I thought you said 'twas a safety lamp!" said Katie indignantly.

"'Tisn't half so good as our un-safety ones;" declared Robbie.

"It's never safe to blow directly down upon a full flame in any lamp,"

said mamma. "The wick should always be turned down first and the flame gently blown."

"Accident the third;" said August ruefully. "Mamma, do you feel like trusting me any farther?"

His mother smiled. "The usual experience of inventors, my son."

Sunday pa.s.sed quietly. Monday with its school duties was well over.

Tuesday morning--"Three weeks to-day!" said August, and half fearfully opened his incubator.

"_Peep! Peep! Peep!_"

The lad trembled with excitement, and a flush of joy spread over his face. He could hardly believe his ears. "One, two, three," he hurriedly counted, "four, five, six." On he counted, up to twenty eggs chipped or cracked. One chicken was half out of its sh.e.l.l, and one, quite independent, was scrambling over the rest of the eggs.

August held his breath and looked at them as long as he dared to keep the incubator open. Then softly closing the lid, he rushed down stairs.

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" he shouted at the door of his mother's room. "They're hatching, mamma! They're hatching!"

"Are they, really?" asked mamma, pleased enough, and she hurried up the stairs, closely followed by the children, whom August's joyful cry had aroused from their sleep. In great excitement they cl.u.s.tered around the barrel.

"Oh! what a cunning, fluffy one!" cried little Katie, as she spied the oldest chick.

"But what is the matter with that other one?" asked Tommy.

"He has just left the sh.e.l.l and is not dry yet," August explained. "As soon as he is dry he will be downy like the other."

"Hear em say '_peep! peep!_'" cried little Robbie, grasping the edge of the barrel with both hands, and stretching his short legs to their utmost extent in order to get his eyes high enough to look over the edge.

"What lots are cracked!" said Tommy. "Oh! August, here is one cracked all round."

"Yes," said August, "that chick will soon be out." Even as he spoke the sh.e.l.l parted, and a third little bright-eyed chicken struggled out and looked about in amazement.

The children could have watched them much longer with great interest, but mamma was afraid the incubator would get too cool, and she advised August to cover it.

"How _do_ they do it, mamma?" asked Katie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW THE CHICKEN IS PACKED.]

"The little chick is packed very wonderfully in his sh.e.l.l," said mamma.

"His head under his wing, legs folded up with the feet toward the head, his bill coming out from under one wing. This bill is furnished with a little hard point on the top. When he is ready to crack the sh.e.l.l and come out, he begins to move. He turns his whole body slowly round, cracking the sh.e.l.l as he goes, by pressing with his whole force against it, the hard, sharp point on the top of his bill coming next the sh.e.l.l.

When he is a few days old this hard point drops off. Just before he hatches, after the egg is cracked all around, he frees his head from his wing and struggles to stretch himself. Then the sh.e.l.l parts and he gets his head out, and presently his legs, one after the other. I forgot to say that just before hatching he gradually absorbs the yolk of the egg into his body, and that nourishes him for twenty-four hours after hatching."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW THE Sh.e.l.l IS CRACKED.]

"It's very curious, isn't it?" said Tommy.

"I didn't know anything but hens or ducks could hatch eggs," said Katie.

"Why, Katie!" exclaimed August, "there is a place at Canton, in China, where _thousands_ of ducks' eggs are hatched artificially every day.

There are twenty-eight rooms to the establishment, and all along the sides of these rooms are rows of sliding trays filled with eggs. These eggs are put in the first room the first day; on the second day they are moved to the second room; and so on, until they hatch in the last room.

The heat is graduated, the last rooms being cooler than the first. All these eggs are hatched by the heat of the rooms."

"If they hatch thousands every day," asked Tommy, "what do they do with the little ducks?"

"They hatch them for the people in the neighboring towns," replied August. "The Chinese are very fond of ducks and ducks' eggs. A gentleman who has been to Canton, and seen the hatching-rooms, told me he had seen people take eggs there to be hatched. They would pay for the hatching and then one of the men in charge of the rooms would count their eggs, and give them just as many little ducklings."

"I guess they don't have accidents there, then," said Katie.

"_I_ won't have accidents _always_," August replied.

"But what _do_ they do with so many ducks?" asked Tommy.

"Why, half the poor Chinese people near the coast live on the water all the time in boats that are half houses. Of course they could not keep hens, but they can keep ducks and they do."

"Oh, yes!" cried Tommy. "I 'member how papa told about seeing them fed and called into the boats. He said every flock knew its own call, and would go scuttling through the water to the right boat. He thought they were in this d'edful hurry, cause the last one got whipped."

"What shall I do about school, mamma?" August asked.

"Oh! go, and recite your most important lessons," she answered wisely. "I will take care of the eggs and chickens till you return."

It was just as well for August to be occupied, since the hatching, although it went on surely, was slow work.

With great faith in his incubator, August had previously built a little yard for the expected chickens.

It was in box form, about eight feet long and two feet wide. In the center was a feeding-tray and water tank, and at one end a hover. This hover (H) was

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ARTIFICIAL MOTHER.]