1907.] MY friend' THE HEN. I05 



rooster men. That is no joke. That is right. We talk in this 

 country a great deal about " the man behind the gun." Some 

 two or three years ago the air was filled with that expression, 

 " The man behind the gun." You would think to hear it used 

 sometimes that that was the greatest thing in the world, to be 

 the man behind the gun ; but my friends, that does not keep 

 the world going, the man behind the gun. It does not begin 

 to compare with the women behind the home. That is what 

 keeps the world going. The efforts of the man behind the gun 

 do not touch the heart of the matter at all, but it is these rooster 

 men who go out and crow and tell of these big things that they 

 have done, and if they do not overdo the matter you will find 

 that they are the successful ones. My Swedish woman was a 

 hen woman. As you can see, this leads us naturally to the 

 consideration of two kinds of people. Perhaps some of you 

 have heard the story of the duck that waddled through the 

 barnyard and said to the rooster, " Why in the world is it that 

 every time one of your wives lays an egg they run out of the 

 house to get it, and everybody says, all the people on the farm 

 say, ' What a wonderful hen that is ? ' Now I lay eggs, but 

 they do not make any such fuss as that over me. They come 

 out and find them as best they can, but no one ever speaks of 

 me as a layer or as a wonderful duck, although the chances 

 are that I lay as many eggs, if not more, than your wife does. 

 Now why is it ? " Well, the rooster opened his throat and 

 crowed as loud as he could, and he said, " The trouble is tliis : 

 you sneak off into the grass here and lay your egg and forget 

 it, and then go down and take a swim in the pond, and nobody 

 knows that you have laid an egg until they stumble upon it. 

 The minute my wife lays an egg I advertise the fact, and the 

 result is that all the family knows that an egg has been born 

 into the world, and the reputation of my wife and myself is 

 increased in consequence." " That is the whole point of it." 

 " We advertise. You don't." Now there are lots of people 

 who are like the duck. They want to advertise and they ought 

 to advertise, but they lack the assurance and seem to be 

 ashamed to do it. No one knows they have anything that 

 is worth while to sell. Of course, there are those who do 

 advertise, who make their influence felt, and who go into the 

 marts of the world and make money. When a man has a good 

 thing I believe he should stand by it, and he should let the 



