 "The hen house occupies the entire left foreground of the picture, running back to the nearby road. The main foreground is filled with tall grass swept by the wind, the naturalness of which effect is remarkable. A thief appears  round the corner, carrying a tattered sack. He suspiciously approaches the window, from which two fowl are handed to him by a black confederat, who himself suddenly appears at the window, falling out head first but clinging tenaciously to a fluttering white bird. Both [of them] start to run when the farmer and his hand appear in the foreground, one with a scythe and the other with a gun. Just as the marauders disappear  round the corner, the farmer, back to, but still shown at life-size in the picture, aims and fires twice. The smoke effect from the gun at this close range is startling and beautiful, and the entire picture is one of the best composed and most ingenious we have made."