CHAPTER XXIII 
THE FIRST HATCH 
On February 3 the incubator lamps were 
lighted under the first invoice of one thousand 
eggs. The incubating cellar was to Sam’s liking, 
and he felt confident that three weeks of strict 
attention to temperature, moisture, and the turn- 
ing of eggs, would bring results beyond my 
expectations. 
After the seventh day, on which he had tested 
or candled the eggs, he was willing to promise 
almost anything in the way of a hatch, up to 
seventy-five or eighty per cent. In the intervals 
of attendance on the incubators he was hard at 
work on the brooder-house, which must be ready 
for its first occupants by the 25th. Everything 
went smoothly until the 18th. That morning 
Sam met me with a long face. 
«Something went wrong with one of my 
lamps last night,” said he. “I looked at them 
at ten o’clock and they were all right, but at 
six this morning one of the thermometers was 
registering 122°, and the whole batch was 
cooked.” 
«“ Not the whole thousand, Sam !” 
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