. 
24. COMMON SENSE 
and shrubbery for them to range over, was foreign to the previous 
train of.my thoughts. Of course there was one -branch of the 
poultry business that might be made to pay even on a single. acre; 
I refer to so-called fancy or pure-bred fowls, but this was a branch 
of the business for which I felt myself totally unfitted, and for 
which, owing to certain previous disagreeable associations, I had a 
most intense dislike. : 
| In previous years, wherever I had had a home with even a 
garden attached, I had always kept a few hens and . always with 
success, and now as I have already stated, there were in our barn- 
yard quite a flock—some fifty or sixty hens—left by Brown. We 
had even gone so far as to set a few hens, and already there were 
several small broods wandering about the orchard. For experience 
had taught me that young fowls whose flesh had been accumulated 
in the open air, with all the freedom of the hillsides, and the health 
which plenty of exercise and the ability to select natural food con- 
fers, were infinitely to be preferred to the birds usually brought to 
market, most of which had been confined in dirty coops for two or 
three weeks before being killed. It does not require, one to be 
much of an epicure or a judge to tell the difference. I had, there- 
fore, taken steps. to raise enough for our own table at least, and 
thus far we had had tolerable success, though not at all what I 
expected, from my previous experience. ‘The young chickens did 
not seem very strong, and they certainly were of no particular 
breed, for the flock was rather a’ motley one. With the exception 
of a few old white Leghorn hens it would have been difficult to tell 
what.they. were. Amongst the rest, however, was a very pretty 
Seabright’ bantam hen—the especial pet of little Nettie; and here 
I cannot forbear-to digress a little and give the reader her history. 
This bird was the last one of a trio that had been given to Nettie 
by a-friend, and she made me promise that when she got settled in 
her new -home I would pack up “Bright Eyes” and send the bird 
to her, either by express or by some one willing to take .charge of 
her. -As Nettie was a favorite of mine, and very fond of me, I was 
only too glad to make the promise. The other hen of the trio had, 
during the previous season, hatched out seven beautiful little chicks, 
