The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-06-09
~You said milk and butter. / was

II sas II sup "a uuS touSue- l see you
are ready to pick up the slightest thing.
but let me tell you that I'm not to bo
turned aside from my purpose this time.
I'll put an adj in the papers tomor.
row"
For a lame hen to start the poultry
business on."
NO, madam" he Numbered. You
are determined to treat this matter In
sarcasm. but / want to tell you that
within a month I'll have this house sold
and be in the chicken business. When
a person can sit in a rocking chair and
$1,000 per month he's a fool to keep on
lingering for a bare living. We won't
start with n lame hen. but with a thou
sand healthy and ambitious birds"
Mrs. Bowser made no reply. She
could have gone at IL and destroyed his
arguments In a minute. but she decided
not 10 do SO. He turned to his paper
and reread the poultry statements.
mad either in sarcasm or by some one
who didn't know a hen from a brindied
CALI. and his ambition and greed be-
came so great that he couldn't sit still.
He got up and walked around the room
for several minutes and then paused to
say:
Yes, you can begin to pack up. We
will be sold out in two weeks"
Very WELL" she replied.
And | think I'll drop over and see
the butcher for a few minutes. He'll
know the best breed of fowls to start
for them at once. We can keep a thou
sand of them down cellar for a month
il we have to, and during that time we
ought to have half a million eggs"
He, took his hat from the rack and
started off for the butchers, and when
the door had closed behind him the cat
came out from under the lounge and
sat up and looked at Mrs. Bowser in q
sorrowful way and seemed to say:
Don't grieve, poor woman. The
butcher is a hard headed man, and Mr..
BOwser will hear something drop be.
fore he comes back"
The butcher vas about closing up for
the evening, but he cheerfully agreed
that be would answer a few questions
about poultry. He had known all
about poultry since he was a chicken
himself. Mr.. Bowser handed him the
paper and asked him to read the arti.
Gle. He did SO, and when he had finish
ed he burst into a guffaw and said:
THAT was written by a fool for fools
to read. You don't tell me that you be.
lieve such statements?
"They strike me as reasonable and
truthful
'"Then the fool killer ought to strike
you with a club. Did you ver see a
hen?"
"Sir, don't insult met"
I'm not insulting you. Did you ever
have a flock Of hens around your
house?"
NO"
"Well, if you had you would realize
what nonsense this is. Why, Bowser.
you couldn't make your salt at the
poultry business. There are twenty
failures to one success, and it's harder
work than saving hickory wood with
a dull saw"
81 beg to differ with you. I say there
is money in it. If a oma sixty years
old can start with one hen, and a lame
one at that, and make
make your grandmother
But do you mea to say that I'm a
fool!'
GNo pau-cor h,,t Won orn on oo CIV
mark, a good thing. You want weights
on your feet to keep them down. Give
it up. Go home and ask Mrs. Bowser
to make you some catnip tea and tuck
you up in your trundle bed"
"You are a liar, sir! You are-you
are
But the smiling and good natured
butcher pushed him out Of the door and
locked it against him, and Mr.. Bowser
wss forced to walk away. He thought
Of appealing to the druggist, but he
knew what the man would say and
say it gladly. The plumber might pos
sibly sympathiZe with his desire to
make $4,000 in two years u Of ten
or twenty hens and a blind rooster, but
he had closed his shop and gone home.
There was the tailor. But what did a
tailor know about lens that laid TWEEN
ty eggs 4 day and were ambitious to
do better? The world was against the
man who wanted to go into poultry.
The April breezes sighed and moaned.
the last of the January s%nowdrifts
were running into the gutter, and with
his hands locked behind him he walked
up and down and thought of the thou
sands Of dollars that were slipping
away from him, and in imagination he
was followed by a flock of hens that
cried out to him to grasp his fortune at
the flood and not change of poultry for
coonskins. NJ. QUAD.
Her Cruel Reply.