MY FAILURES 
day a secret, but some of my neighbors 
kept tab on me, as some neighbors some- 
times will, and when hatching-day came 
around I had a considerable company who 
do not think an invitation a necessary 
prelude to attending a hatching-bee; and: 
to my great joy, if not surprise, some of 
those costly eggs actually popped out into 
live chickens. But those chickens were 
not properly incubated, and I found them 
very hard to raise; so hard, indeed, that 
they all died. 
My chicken fever had not yet subsided, 
so, after improving the old incubator to 
my notion, I gathered five hundred more 
eggs and started the machine again. The 
hatch this time was more satisfactory; 
the chicks came out strong, vigorous and 
healthy, and I felt greatly encouraged. As 
a result of this last hatch I raised a flock 
of nice, strong, healthy birds. 
I say last hatch, because my chicken 
fever had subsided, and, after raising ‘this 
last hatch of chickens, I went out of the 
chicken business for a long time: but the 
experience that I gained, experimenting 
with that old incubator, stood me in great 
stead in after years. 
187 
