IN THE POULTRY YARD. 119 
and had been accustomed to the care of animals. Her pastor re- 
commended her very highly for honesty and steadiness, so I gave 
him what we thought would be her expenses in coming to see me, 
and arranged a time when she should meet my man with the 
spring wagon. She came and after she had seen the coops, houses 
and yards, and had her duties fully explained, she thought that 
she would like to try the place at any rate. So I engaged her and 
set her to work at once, sending my man that afternoon for her 
trunk, etc. 
Her duties were to be the care of the fowls of which she was to 
have entire charge nader my directions. ‘The man was to perform 
certain definite portions of the work, such as cleaning out the 
houses, cracking corn for the young chickens, grinding bones and 
oyster shells, carrying tood and water, and similar jobs, and of 
course when the coops were to be moved and work of that kind 
to be done, she was not expected to do much. But I found that 
that she was as strong as an average man, and a great deal more 
willing, so that it was impossible to prevent her helping us with 
everything. Her name was Margaret and she proved indeed a 
“ pearl,” and to her faithfulness and intelligence much of the suc- 
‘cess of my experiment was due 
As soon as she came she entered earnestly upon her duties. 
The various yards were kept open or shut, as required, with great 
regularity; the breeding coops were visited regularly, the eggs re- 
moved and the nests kept in good order, and all the birds, old and 
young, were carefully fed. She did not profess to know anything 
about the different kinds of food, and had no special notions about 
feeding and management. She had fed her chickens in the old 
country upon whatever she could get, and occasionally gave them 
alittle pepper and old mortar pounded up, but beyond this she 
had no nostrums, and was ready to do anything that I told her. This 
made her invaluable, for it left me-free to be guided by my own 
knowledge, and assured me that my plans and experiments would 
not be secretly thwarted by some one that thought she knew better 
than I did. 
I fully realized that the financial results of my present stock, 
