ses in
Fairport. The walls were white and clean, so were the little ladders
that led up to different kinds of roosts, where the fowls sat at night.
Some roosts were thin and round, and some were broad and flat. Mrs. Wood
said that the broad ones were for a heavy fowl called the Brahma. Every
part of the little house was almost as light as it was outdoors, on
account of the large windows.

Miss Laura spoke of it. "Why, auntie, I never saw such a light hen
house."

Mrs. Wood was diving into a partly shut-in place, where it was not so
light, and where the nests were. She straightened herself up, her face
redder than ever, and looked at the windows with a pleased smile.

"Yes, there's not a hen house in New Hampshire with such big windows.
Whenever I look at them, I think of my mother's hens, and wish that they
could have had a place like this. They would have thought themselves in
a hen's paradise. When I was a girl we didn't know that hens loved light
and heat, and all winter they used to sit in a dark hencoop, and the
cold was so bad that their combs would freeze stiff, and the tops of
them would drop off. We never thought about it. If we'd had any sense,
we might have watched them on a fine day go and sit on the compost heap
and sun themselves, and then have concluded that if they liked light
and heat outside, they'd like it inside. Poor biddies, they were so cold
that they wouldn't lay us any eggs in winter."

"You take a great interest in your poultry, don't you, auntie?" said
Miss Laura.

"Yes, indeed, and well I may. I'll show you my brown Leghorn, Jenny,
that lay eggs enough in a year to pay for the newspapers I take to keep
myself posted in poultry matters. I buy all my own clothes with my hen
money, and lately I've started a bank account, for I want to save up
enough to start a few stands of bees. Even if I didn't want to be kind
to my hens, it would pay me to be so for sake of the profit they yield.
Of course they're quite a lot of trouble. Sometimes they get vermin on
them, and I have to grease them and dust carbolic acid on them, and try
some of my numerous cures. Then I must keep ashes and dust wallows for
them and be very particular about my eggs when hens are sitting, and see
that the hens come off regularly for food and exercise. Oh, there are
a hundred things I have to think of, but I always say to any one that
thinks of raising poultry: 'If you are going into the business for the
purpose of making