OP POULTRY. 
281 
he allowed me to manage the poultry I always found plenty 
of customers for everything I took to the market ; and I'm 
sure there were as many foreign eggs brought over then as 
there are now. But the truth is, sir, he never pays the- 
least attention to it, except to catch what he can, then 
take it down to the Rose and Crown, and there sell it for 
what it will fetch. You see, sir, there is not a turkey, duck, 
or goose about the place ; and as for the few poor fowls, 
he has not given them a handful of grain for months !" " I 
knows that," he grunted out, and why should I ? They 
won't fetch nothin' — so let 'em grub for themselves ; and if 
they won't, let 'em die." With this he turned on his heel, 
and staggered off to the ale-house. 
It is needless to say anything more about this man's pot- 
house observations ; but suffice it to say, that after replacing 
the ferret in my pocket, and giving the poor wife and 
daughters some wholesome advice, I went my way, and felt 
perfectly satisfied, from what I had heard and seen, that 
that was not the way to manage poultry. 
However, I must tell you that I met the good woman 
about three years afterwards, and she told me she was a widow 
that about a week after I was there, her husband, in coming 
home from the Rose and Crown late at night, tumbled into 
a ditch, and being stunned in the fall, was drowned in a foot 
and a half of water. " But, sir," she said, " it is indeed an 
ill wind that blows no good. Her friends and neighbours 
rallied round her ; and now there was not a happier family 
in England. Everything prospered with them, and she had 
the finest and most profitable stock of poultry of any one in 
the country, and could sell ten times more if she had them. 
But oh, sir, we shall never be able to repay you for your 
kindness in showing us how to make phosphorus pills, and 
the advice you also gave us in poultry-keeping. Uncle 
J ames is ever in our mouth, for if any fowl goes wrong, or a. 
rat makes its appearance, the cry directly is, what will 
Uncle James say, if he comes and sees it 'I The truth is, sir,- 
we are never without the pills ; I make a quantity, and 
keep them by me in close- covered jars, and as one lot is used 
I make another ; and so we keep the vermin under. My 
sons and daughters have each a sweetheart, and they make 
it a pastime, now and then, to go all over the farm, and 
