THE HEN FEVER. 39 



Didn't everybody so declared Didn't the press and the 

 poultry-books concede this, without an exception? Well, 

 they did ! And so, for months, I obtained one dollar each 

 for my Cochin-China fowls' eggs ; and I received order after 

 order, and remittance after remittance, for eggs (at this 

 figure), which I could not begin to supply. 



And I didn't laugh, either ! I had no leisure to laugh. 

 I filled the orders as they came, — "first come, first served," 

 — and for several months I found my list of promises six 

 or eight weeks in advance of my ability to meet them with 

 genuine eggs. 



I was not so well informed, then, as I was afterwards. I 

 think all the eggs that were then wanted might have been 

 had. But, as the boy said, when asked where all the stolen 

 peaches he had eaten were gone, " I donno ! " 



Will it be credited that, during the summer of 1850, I 

 had dozens of full-grown men — gentlemen — but enthusi- 

 astic hen-fanciers (who had contracted the fever suddenly), 

 who came to my residence for Cochin-China eggs, at one 

 dollar each, and who, upon being informed that I had n't one 

 in the house, would quietly sit down in my parlor and wait 

 two, three, or four hours at a time, for the hens to lay 

 them a few, that they might take them away with them ? 

 Such is the fact, however it may be doubted. 



I subsequently sold the eggs at ten dollars a dozen ; then 

 at six dollars ; and finally, the third and fourth years, at 



