New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-11-24
THE HERMAN
NOT MOGGIDGED.


should explain that in New England man rides
through the country in three four weeks, buy
ing at a discouraglngy low price whatever fowl'
the farmers may have TO sell. Tho enterprfs!ps
farmers market their chickens, but great many
farmers not ontcrprSIng, they arc women, and
pOsslhy who would not do anything SO
una Ike as TO take their feathcrcd crops "a
mar CT. Hence the hen men, These latter have
coops made of laths two or three stories high, on
their carts They not usually members Of the
highest class in society; they chew tobacco; they
smoke old pipes, and they tell lies. That Is to say
a great many OF them tell lies. One will assert he
IA coming along such a day, and yon must have
all your /" ROSTERS shut up and he will buy them
You shut up your ROSTERS the day passes and the
hen man does not come You begin TO look for him
putting only half your mind your usual work
lie does not come the second day. Those things
confined in that she'd have by this time let you know
that there IS not apparently enough in the uni
verse TO satisfy their appees; they are vslbly grow
ing poorer, though they have not eaten as much DO
fore in all their lives. II IS getting toward Thanks
giving and every hour fowl are becoming cheaper
1t is in such a combination Of circumstances that one
becomes very weary watching for hen man.
Mehitable Green had shut up the fowl she intended
TO sell. They had been shut mp for four days ana
reducing themselves TO skeletons In NE most
mysterious manner at the same time that they were
meal. Mehtable scalded the meal because long ex'
pcrlenoe had taught her that 1t " went farther" IL
did not seem to her that IL went far now. MIS-
Green had been out to the shed and looked az inc
birds. / think she had kind OF belief that the
Farnsworth look, of which she was complete Mistress
would awe the fowl into different state OF nihd OF
body. But It didn't. They stretched our their
heads bnked their eyes, and evidently did not care
a rap for the Farnsworth look So Mrs. Green went
back to the house and told her daughter they'd both
have to go to tho poor-house II they had to keep
them roosters much longer.
Mehitable looked up her glasses. with which
sho was reading libr'y book" She appeared so
helpless and so anxious that her mother turned and
slammed the door a relief TO her own over wrought
mind.
Mehtable rose and followed the old woman
I'D know what en- do more N to watch every
minute for the hen man, she said apologetically.
He's the tryingest man 1 ever knew"
Even as she spoke there was the sound OF wheels
Both and stumbled to the front door.
Yes, there he was, dashng by at great rate, with
two horses, and he had solemnly promised to stop
the Green place.
Mrs Green gazed after him In silence moment.
Then she TUNED and said fercely:
Cut off their heads :" Did she refer to the heads
of hen men, or TO the heads of fowll No one
knew; her meaning could only be guessed.
Mehtable was thrown Immediately into violent
tremor She tried to explain that he always came
back the next day; he had gone up" a phrase
used to signify that person had CONS up 10 inc
next village and when a hen man had gone up
It always, in the past, had followed that he came
down. Mehitable asserted with ervor that she would
spend the entire day the morrow in Watching and
She said again and again that she would ketch him.
Indeed IL was necessary to ketch him." or the al
formative appeared to be long life spent with tho
knowledge and the expense Of twenty ROSTERS
shut UP In the she'd and eating their to the
almshouse.
That night at supper Mrs. Green ordered hasty
pudding and milk for their repas although neither
had any liking for that kind Of food She said that
she didn't see how they could afford anything else to
cat considering what they'd got in the shed. She
assumed that what they had in the shed was en-
tirely her daughters fault and that the gall ought
TO bear the consequences.
This was very hard Mehitable and she felt its
injustice sorely. She made Intellectual struggle
to right herself She dropped her spoon with clat
ter into her bowl
"Why, now, mother you know you wanted me to
try m raise a lot Of chickens this year; you know
you did m you know l can't cut their heads of
faint ladylike; m II
"Mhitablc~ said Mrs Green, with Fansworth
severity Not another word! Let your victuais
stop your mouth
the office mentioned by her companion. But though
she was silent she felt her eyes smart and her THROAT
swell. She conscious of a Wild feeling OF nc
belon. Was she not grown up! Was she not an
individual as much her motheri She had never
had the control of herself for a half
hour since she born, and here
she was ffty-thrce years old. In five minutes, how
ever. she was deeply ashamed of this unknown.
ftess protest and so epentant for it that she was
tbe reSt NJ he dav
Once. as she was pouring hot water into pail of
Indian meal for the ROSTERS, the thought came to
her. What If she had married what II somebody
had wanted herl"
The color spraug to her faded pathetic face at the
mere idea and she almost poured the hot water on
her arctic covered foot in her confusion.
The next day the hen man came down the hills !
from the west village. When he within sight Of
the old Green house he saw figure in the yard. A
nearer view showed him that this figure was tall and
thin. and that il had gray blanket pinned on its
head It ran into the road and stood close to the
track waving its hands at him.
He drew up his horses. He looked down at her.
and Mehitable Looked up at him, perceiving with a
kind of shock that this not the young fellow who
had gone by the day before, but a man of sixty. a
man who had been widower, and she knew she had
hcen then recommended to him good likely
woman. who would make savin' wife,
Whatever happened. Mehitabe must not forget her
business She knew her mother was looking nom the
window at her.
81 spose you amt goin' to buy roosers, be rel"
she asked. blushing painfully.
The man slowly climbed down from his wagon.
lie went and pulled at strap on the harness Of the
nigh horse before he replied
=" BE they pooty fair ROSTERS ~ he asked.
"They was" said she.
/" But how be they now ~ said he.
"Theyve been shet up some" was the reply, "but
they've eat oceans, m they orter be fat"
"Iu look at 'um' said he; and the two walked
toward the shed. AS they went he remarked that
shot up ROSTERS never brought such a good price
ones that run. He didn't know why twas, but they
didn't
He gazed round at the farm with a critical and in
curing gaze
Rnther good land sh'd say. Il twas only worked