82 



MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



tiitg wiiauat making any trouble about it. 



really suppose I had raised, more 

 poultry than any one individuaPS^'all 

 the section round about there. The 

 very chickens came to know my talent, 

 by and by. The youth of both sexes 

 ceased to paw the earth for worms, 

 and old roosters that came to crow, 

 "remained to pray," when I passed by. 

 I have had so much experience in 

 the raising of fowls that I cannot but 

 think that a few hints from me might 

 be useful to the Soci-ety. The two 

 methods I have already touched upon 

 are very simple, and are only used in 

 the raising of the commonest class of 

 fowls; one is for summer, the other for 

 winter. In the one case you start out 

 with a friend along about eleven 

 o'clock on a summer's night (not later, 

 because in some States — especially in 

 California and Oregon — chickens al- 

 ways rouse up just at midnight and 

 crow from ten to thirty minutes, 

 according to the ease or difficulty they 

 experience in getting the public waked 

 up), and your friend carries with him 

 a sack. Arrived at the hen-roost 

 (your neighbor's, not your own), you 

 light a match and hold it under first 

 one and then another pullet's nose 

 until they are willing to go into that 

 You then return home, either taking the 



