THE HEN FEVER. 43 



regi 3t subsequently, that I did not charge fifty dollars a 

 pair; — a price which I might just as easily then have 

 obtained as if I had charged but one dollar a pair, as events 

 proved to my satisfaction. 



But everything connected with this fever could not well 

 be learned at once. I was not a very dull scholar, and I 

 progressed gradually. One year after the receipt of my 

 Cochins, I got my own price for them, ask what I might. 

 1 sold a good many pairs at one hundred dollars the couple ; 

 and, oftentimes, I received this sum for a trio of them. 



Things begun to look up with me. I had got a very 

 handsome-looking stock on hand, at last; and when my 

 numerous customers came to see me, they were surprised 

 (and so was /) to meet with such "noble" samples of 

 domestic fowls. "Magnificent!" "Astonishing!" cried 

 everybody. 



A splendid open carriage halted before my door, one day, 

 and there alighted from it a fine, portly-looking man, whom 

 I had never seen before, and whose name I did not then 

 learn ; who, leaving an elegantly-dressed lady behind in the 

 vehicle, called for me. 



I saw and recognized the carriage, however, as one of 

 Niles' ; and I was satisfied that it came from the Tremont 

 House. As soon as the gentleman spoke, I was also satisfied, 

 from his manner of speech, that he was a Southerner. He 

 was polite and frank, apparently. I invited him in, and he 



