And if any epidemic comes amongst the fowls as there
was in neighbour Gumesinda's the year before last, you may be sure it
will only be for want of corn. And the strangest thing is, and it is
quite true, though you may doubt it, for neighbour Gumesinda told me
only yesterday when she came to ask me for some parsley, because, as
you know very well, her own was all rooted up when the pigs broke into
her garden last October; well, sir, she says the epidemic which swept
off twenty-seven of her best fowls in one week began by a black cock
with a broken toe, just like ours, beginning to droop its wings as if
it had the pip.'
"'May all the demons take this woman!' I cried, throwing down the spoon
I had been using, 'with her chatter about eggs and pip and neighbour
Gumesinda, and I know not what besides! Do you think I have nothing
to do but to gallop about the country looking for maize, when it is
not to be had for its weight in gold at this season, and all because
a sickly spotted hen is likely to have the pip?'
"'I have said no such thing,' retorted Pascuala, raising her voice as
women do. 'Either you are not paying proper attention to what I am
telling you, or you pretend not to understand me. For I never said the
spotted hen was likely to have the pip; and if she is the fattest fowl
in all this neighbourhood you may thank me, after the Virgin, for it,
as neighbour Gumesinda often says, for I never fail to give her chopped
meat three times a day; and that is why she is never out of the kitchen,
so that even the cats are afraid to come into the house, for she flies
like a fury into their faces.
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