36 COMMON SENSE 
boy I used often to be pressed into the service of catching the hens 
in the hen house during the operation of “trying the hens.” And 
the hens being always kindly treated and frequently handled were 
not difficult to catch. 
‘Then, I remember, how, years ago, when we first went to house- 
keeping in our own home, we resolved to have fresh eggs for our 
table, and not be disgusted with occasional stale eggs, which pre- 
vented all further enjoyment of that meal. And so I made a small. 
house that two men could easily carry about, and with portable fenc- 
ing, almost the same as that described in. this book, I made a small 
yard in which I kept half a dozen Light Brahma pullets, that kept 
us in eggs nearly the whole year round. And, I had not forgetten 
the success with which I raised some of the handsomest birds that 
had been seen in that locality—birds, to which people walking 
past our city lot, would give no mere passing glance, but would 
stand still to admire. This was the first ‘instance I had ever 
seen of a movable coop designed to enable us to give the birds 
fresh ground whenever we desired to do so, and to raise crops on 
the soil which they had at the same time both enriched and de- 
filed. 
These things I looked back upon with pleasure. Not that 
they had been very profitable—they were on too small a scale for 
that—but, because I felt that I was not without a certain familiarity 
with the subject, and, consequently, I would probably be able to 
steer clear of any glaring mistakes at first. 
Such thoughts occupied my mind as we jogged along, and [ 
suppose Madge often wondered why her old master did not keep a 
tighter rein, and watch for her stumbling. It was dark when I got 
home, so I put the little rooster in Madge’s stable and left them 
for the night. 
During my waking hours, poultry occupied my chief attention. 
The barren soil along the cliffs; the unoccupied land on the east, 
the use of which I could have for the asking; the necessity for 
something to profitably occupy my time and effort, all passed he- 
fore me in vivid and earnest thought. I saw the uselessness of this 
land for everything else, and: its great value for a poultry range, 
