It is very likely that Billy's first impulse
was to boil his egg and eat it; but a moment's reflection convinced
him that this would be conduct very like that of the boy in the
fable, who slaughtered the goose that laid golden eggs. But how to
hatch his egg--for this was what he thought of--became now the
question. The good woman of the house noticed that Billy was
unusually silent at supper-time, and thought at first that some
disaster must have happened. She learned, however, that the cow had
her customary bed of soft heather, which it was Billy's pride to pick
for her, and had been as carefully attended to as usual in every
particular. We ought to mention that Billy was a great favourite with
his mistress; and perhaps he had won her heart by the care and
attention he had bestowed at every spare moment on one of her little
ones, who was a very sickly, fretful child, but who, somehow or
other, was always most quickly pacified by Billy. She soon learned
the cause of his thoughtful silence, and kindly offered to remove two
or three eggs from under a duck which was then sitting, and give
their place to her cow-boy's single treasure.
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