IN THE POULTRY YARD. 37 
and the idea impressed itself upon my mind that, while poultry keep- 
ing could not be expected to lead to fortune, it might afford a very 
pleasant and very efficient means of adding to a slender income. 
But so much had been attempted in this direction, and always with 
failure, that, after all, I could not help regarding the project with a 
good deal of doubt. The “hen fever,” the “poultry craze,” and 
the “chicken mania,” well-known forms of speculative dementia, 
had ruined thousands, and therefore I resolved to banish it 
from my mind. With this I fell asleep, and when I woke the sun 
was shining brightly through my bed-room window. 
