CHAPTER TWELVE 



THOROUGHBRED POULTRY 



THOUGH the first fifteen hens I bought were 

 just nondescripts, I intended to have good 

 birds eventually, so the plebeians' eggs were 

 used for the table, and then when the old ladies 

 evinced a desire to set, eggs were brought 

 from a poultry farm which kept white Wyan- 

 dottes. Only common market stock, but that 

 was all the exchequer could afford in those 

 days, and by buying cockerels of higher caste 

 to head the breeding-pens, the young birds 

 were a little better each year. 



In the spring of the fourth year the desire 

 for show-room trophies, and the prestige their 

 possession gives, became irresistible, and a trio 

 of birds who had won first prize at Madison 

 Square Garden, in New York City, were pur- 

 chased for $70. It seemed an awful price for 



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