20 FARMING IT 



eggs per year for the first year and of none there- 

 after, and a steadfastness and pertinacity of in- 

 cubation that only could be abated by setting fire 

 to the nest and consuming nest, eggs, and hen, 

 and occasionally the adjoining buildings, in 

 which case, and provided the buildings were pro- 

 perly insured, the owner made money and lived 

 happily ever afterwards. 



Yet there remained a steady increase in the 

 business, and of late years the invention and suc- 

 cessful adoption of the incubator and brooder 

 had forced the business into the front rank of na- 

 tional industries. When one reflects on the vast 

 scope in the usefulness of an egg, ranging from 

 the tempting of the appetite of a broken-down 

 sport to the assaulting of a temperance lecturer 

 or prima donna assoluta, one cannot wonder at the 

 increasing demand. 



In this matter I had no illusions. I knew some- 

 thing about hens, as I had kept them in my boy- 

 hood. And I knew also the difficulty of making 

 them lay with any degree of regularity. But they 

 were interesting, if aggravating, and I had no 

 doubt of being able, at least, to have fresh eggs 

 from my own forcing-house, and spurless spring 

 chickens of known and recorded juvenility. The 

 unpedigreed egg is sometimes dangerous to 

 meddle with. Like the little girl adorned as to 

 her forehead w r ith ambrosial locks, 



