"I wish to choose breast," said Leon, simpering just like that silly
Abigail Webster. He put in six breasts. Then we found them hidden
away back in the oven in a pie pan, for the bride's table, I bet, and
we took two livers apiece; we didn't dare take more for fear they had
been counted. Then he threw in whatever he came to that was a first
choice big piece, until I was really scared, and begged him to stop;
but he repeated what the fox said in the story of the "Quarrelsome
Cocks"--"Poco was very good, but I have not had enough yet," so he
piled in pieces until I ran away with the pillow-case; then he slid in
a whole plateful of bread, another of cake, and put the plates in a tub
of dishes under the table. Then we took some of everything that wasn't
too runny. Just then the silence broke in the front part of the house,
and we scooted from the back door, closing it behind us, ran to the
wood house and climbed the ladder to the loft over the front part.
There we were safe as could be, we could see to the road, hear almost
everything said in the kitchen, and "eat our bites in peace," like
Peter Justice told the Presiding Elder at the church trial that he
wanted his wife to, the time he slapped her. Before very long, they
began calling us, and called, and called. We hadn't an idea what they
wanted, so we ate away. We heard them first while I was holding over a
back to let Leon taste kidney, and it made him blink when he got it
good.
"Well my soul!" he said. "No wonder father didn't want to feed that to
another man when mother isn't very well, and likes it! No wonder!"
Then he gave me a big bite of breast. It was sort of dry and
tasteless; I didn't like it.
"Why, I think neck or back beats that all to pieces!" I said in
surprise.
"Fact is, they do!" said Leon. "I guess the people who 'wish to choose
breast,' do it to get the biggest piece."
I never had thought of it before, but of course that would be the
reason.
"Allow me, Sister Stanton," said Leon, holding out a piece of thigh.
That was really chicken! Then we went over the backs and picked out
all the kidneys, and ate the little crusty places, and all the cake we
could swallow; then Leon fixed up the bag the best he could, and set it
inside an old cracked churn and put on the lid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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