TALES OF GRAMP 141 



perience. You say a hen ought to average a dollar 

 a year profit. That is all right provided it did n't 

 cost anything to keep a hen during that time. But 

 the profit must be figured on the cost, and the 

 question is, what does it cost to keep a hen a 

 year ? Is n't that so, boys ?" 



'That's all right, Daniel," chimed in the boys. 



"Well," rejoined Daniel, "what does it cost to 

 keep a hen a year? Frankly, I don't know, for I 

 never limited operations to one hen. If, as my 

 wife has frequently told me, I had been contented 

 with one hen, and had kept her in a hen-proof en- 

 closure where she could n't by any possibility get 

 out and ruin flower-beds, and defile the front 

 steps, and make the face of nature a howling, 

 cackling wilderness from morning to night, then 

 perhaps I would have known where I stood, and 

 most assuredly would have known where she 

 stood in the matter. 



" Nor can I estimate in mere dollars and cents 

 the actual expense of keeping many hens, for 

 there are some things whose value cannot be 

 reduced to legal tender. So to average the thing I 

 will estimate my hen-holdings at twenty-five 

 birds. First, I bought the twenty-five fowl, pay- 

 ing therefor fancy prices for very common hens. 

 I am glad that I cannot remember what they cost 

 me. Next, I fed them generously for a year, and 

 that cost I cannot estimate, thank Heaven ! My 



