The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-12-17

of nv own without YOU getting mad' nc
asked. ''Wait till ] buy the hens and name
'em an,l YOU won t think Stitch anything
| have nv little whims, but If they arc go
ing TO make YOU unhappy, | IL
Goodness! Call tho birds anything You
like, said the women, while 'Sttcb, re-
leased, few to the top of the fence and
crowcd loudly.
Sbcrwin 5 selection Of hens was the talk
Of the neigbborhood and gave painful rccur-
renee 10 the whispers about his sanity, From
his savings he bought them at time
and the first hen was brahma chrsteucd
'Twist.' A Plymouth Rock followed, la
belcl ''Wirc. Cochin China called Reap
or, = a brown Leghorp gravely named - Pee
blcs, apparently after the factory that en-
ployed him, OF the flock no two were OF the
same breed, they came one at time at III
tcrvals and the prices the old man claimed
to have paid for them were simply out
rageous and kept the family short for days
afterwarI "Stitcb'' the rooster, 1orded 1T
over the heterogeneous flock and the owner
sat BY the hour and proudly watched them
busly picking up their living, II rumors Of
his brain trouble which resulted in the out
lsudish names reached him he did not leign
TO notice them, aud in short time the whn
ceased to attract attention.
The chicken fad was a fortunate one for
the old man. He was out bright aul early
working in the henhouse, AMI never were
fowls so tenderly cared for. AS hens will
they reciprocatcd the attention lavished oD
them, and laid eggs right royalty; eggs big
and eggs little, eggs brown AMI eggs white
spcckled eggs aul double volks-the family
had eggs 10 eat aud eggs 10 sell, Shorwin
quit his imaginary speculation IN stocks and
Instead opened up set of books With his
hens over which he uever tired working.
1t was quito easy TO fall into stock rop1en-
cIature in keeping track OF the hens and
their doines. When t'Twist' or f'Wire' or
Reaper" were laying regularly their mar
kct was Hrisino,'' when they moultel and
shortened on laying tho market was ''of, -
aud he was ''long' or 'Eshort' on their
products as the case might be. The book
keeper laid out sheets and gravely set down
thc names Of tho flock, now counting over
twenty with another rooster named
"Oilcloth.'' aud reduced the fluctuations in
hen fruit TO figures decimal basis.
Strangely enough. both the roosters figured
in the sheets, but presumably their per
ccntages were based the fights they IN
lulged in, in which, however, the Wyandotte
invariably won.
Sberwin made no secret of his foible in the
Office where IT created much amusement,
''You must be planning to get rich on your
poultry yard. laughed the boys; "what are
YOU going to do with your surplus7'
''Gou II SEQ me living my own place
and driving in behind my trottcr yet said
the bookkeepcr, in wise novel by the
grips. "My hens Wire and Twist arc
worth three times what l paid for them and
arc declaring good dividends right along.
we GOT 10 tho point now where | put the
profits Of my hens into still more hens and
some Of these days | II strike hen that lays
golden eggs, and tben-tGe trotter.i
Cline 1ne.' said the office help, sadly
tapping their forehcads behind Shcrwin S
back,
1t was a pity that the booSkeeper had not
taken 10 keeping hers years before. He lost
his taciturnitv AMI actually whsted ms he
tossed his lodgers about. and cue day he
opened bank account,