118 COMMON SENSE 
The hens now in my yards were in pretty fair condition. Some 
of them were, evidently, quite old and showed no signs of moult- 
ing; some of the younger ones were already beginning to moult. 
I took care that every morning they all had a liberal feed of rich 
soft food, and instead of the number of eggs that were laid decreas- 
ing, théy actually increased—an unusual thing for this season of the 
year. But this involved extra work and care, and I soon saw that 
more help was needed to do the birds justice. 
In restricting the number of fowls the first year, I was guided, in 
a measure, by the amount of help at my disposal. My own 
time I considered equal to half that of one man; the servant girl 
rendered us some valuable assistance, and the man gave perhaps 
one-third of his time to the poultry. With this amount of labor at 
command, it was difficult to give more than ordinary care to the 
number of fowls on hand, together with a few broods, so that I felt 
the need of some person who would give his whole time to 
carrying out the details of the work, while I devoted myself to 
superintendence, marketing, etc. Having a stout man to do any 
hard work or heavy lifting, it occurred to me that an honest, care- 
fal woman would prove the best assistant, if I could find one willing 
to do the work. 
I made quite an extended inquiry, and had a great many offers, 
but without any favorable results. ‘The objections to those who 
applied were obvious and numerous, and I was about to give up 
in disgust the idea of employing a woman, when I received a visit 
from the pastor of a German Catholic church, in a neighboring city. 
It seems that he had heard of my want, and that amongst his 
parishioners was a woman of about forty-five, who had come to 
this country a few years ago, from Switzerland, with a husband and 
step-daughter. The husband had died and the daughter had got 
married, and the poor woman was alone ina strange land. In this 
country, those who are willing to work need rarely be idle, and 
she found enough to do at odd jobs to keep her fully employed, but 
she wished to find a home where employment would be perman- 
ent. On inquiry, I found that she had been accustomed to work 
out of doors, when she was in Europe; she was strong, healthy 
