"The little chick is packed very wonderfully in his shell," 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 shell and come out, he begins to move. He turns his whole body slowly round, cracking the shell as he goes, by pressing with his whole force against it, the hard, sharp point on the top of his bill coming next the shell. 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 shell 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." [Illustration: HOW THE SHELL 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."