THE HEN FEVER. 181 



stories that you carn't prove.* You 've no right to. You 

 sell fowls, by this means, but you don't get no clear con- 

 science by it. It 's •wrong, Mr. Burnum, and you know it. 

 While you do this, nobody can sell no fowls except you. 

 Give other people a chance, say I. I would n't do this, no- 

 how, to sell my fowls at your expense ; and I go for having 

 everybody do unto othera as / would do to them. This is 

 moral and Christian-like, and you 'd better adopt it. That 's 

 my advice, and I don't charge nothing for it. So, no more 

 at present — from Your, resp'y, 



These missives never disturbed me. Why should they ? 

 These very men would have sold, from that very stock, — 

 had done so, repeatedly, before, — whatever a buyer sought 

 to purchase. I never knew either of them to permit the 

 chance of a sale to pass by him, on account of the variety 

 of bird sought ! They invariably possessed whatever was 

 wanted. With them, "policy was the best honesty." I 

 did not complain. I was a " hen-man," but no Mentor. 



* I never found, in my limited experience in this business, any par- 

 ticular necessity for attempting to prove anything. " The people " wanted 

 FOWLS — not proofs ! 



16 



