The Nome nugget., 1934-09-01

reached the office. Jim and Rus received them sol- emnly and praised him highly for his success and winked broadly be- hind his back.
 Along about the first of May Steve's hens, or most of them, stopped laying. After falling to solve the mystery himself, he consulted a neighbor and was told that the biddies were at this time of year usually interested in raising q family.
 Steve thought this was great Re went home. gathered together all his spare eggs and put five of his hens to set.
 The others he locked up in bar. ren anteroom to "break up" their family raising notion.
 At the end of two weeks eight of the three dozen eggs Steve had set. matched.
 The young man was jubilant.
 He proudly summoned his neigh bor. to display the result of his breeding efforts, and was told that five of the eight chicks were 'roost- CTS, which wasn't so good.
 It was about this time that month ly bills began to arrive at the hen farm, and after an evening spent in intensive figuring. Steve discovered that the cost of electric light, cook ing gas, telephone and other incl dentals of livelihood was quite as much, if not more, than the cost of the same conyeniences in town.
 It was two days after this that Steve learned, much to his disap- pOintment. that the sfresh" cream, milk and butter which he had been having left at his door each mori- Ing were shipped out of Boston on the night previous and distributed in the country by 6 chain dairy products company.
 Augmenting these startling revela- lions, Steve came to the conclusion that getting up with the sun every morning wasn't such . swell idea, especially if it happened to be . rainy day or if the air wasn't brac- ing because of the humidity.
 He found, also, that the long, quiet evenings were more or less palling once you got used to them. and that . month of reading had brought him up to date on current literature.
 In fact, Steve began to know . longing for a fling at city life, for the evening at . night club or trip to the theater or . gay dinner party.
 Startlingly, he discovered that, after all, farming was . business, and unless you devoted your entire time to 1t. 1t was pretty difficult to make 1t pay.
 Which, incidentally, when you look at the thing squarely, is quite true of almost any business.
 To add to all this, Steve one day awoke to the fact that Jim and Rus, who had had their fling of com muting from the country, were giv- ing him what is known as a merry ha, ha.
 They had, In a manner of speak ing, put up c job on him.
 They wanted to see him get stung.
 And when he finally admitted that this country idea was a lot of bilge they would be all set to enjoy the situation with crude and raucous guffaws.
 This knowledge was disturbing. Steve's ears burned at the thought of 1t.
 And in the end he vowed to foil the instigators of the joke, and turn, if possible, the tables.
 Thus minded, Steve on the day following brought as usual his half dozen fresh eggs to the conniving rascals who posed as friends and advisers, suggesting on delivery that, in view of the fact that eggs were scarce these days and because these from Medyale were strictly fresh, the recipients Of the daily half dozen pay q little more than the asked at the corner del- icatessen for less fresh hen fruit.
 Jim and Rus agreed readily 
 Of course, fresh eggs were worth more money.
 What was more. they were eager and anxious to give Steve . help Ing hand
 A week later Steve moved back to his city apartment and with . great feeling of relief settled once more into the comfortable routine to which he was accustomed.
 But each morning for six months thereafter he paused at the corner chain store en route to the ofIice, purchased two one-half dozen boxes of eggs at 20 cents the half dozen, and later sold them to Jim and Rus Tor 30 cents.
 Which explains why, in the early PaIl. when Him and Rus. nuzzIed