"But couldn't some one dance or sing," said the young lady.
"Dancing and singing!" said the priest. "No!"
And the young lady hurriedly scribbled a few notes about fowls for
laying, fowls for fattening, regular feeding, warm houses, and
something about a percentage of mineral matter. She had not half
finished when the priest said:--
"Now will you stand over there near the harmonium. Whom shall I
announce?"
The young woman told him her name, and he led her to the harmonium
and left her talking, addressing most of her instruction to Biddy
M'Hale, a long, thin, pale-faced woman, with wistful eyes.
"This won't do," said the priest, interrupting the lecturer,--"I'm
not speaking to you, miss, but to my people. I don't see one of
you taking notes, not even you, Biddy M'Hale, though you have made
a fortune out of your hins. Didn't I tell you from the pulpit that
you were to bring pencil and paper and write down all you heard.
If you had known years ago all this young lady is going to tell
you you would be rolling in your carriages to-day."
Then the priest asked the lecturer to go on, and the lady
explained that to get hens to lay about Christmas time, when eggs
fetched the best price, you must bring on your pullets early.
"You must," she said, "set your eggs in January."
"You hear that," said the priest. "Is there anyone who has got
anything to say about that? Why is it that you don't set your eggs
in January?"
No one answered, and the lecturer went on to tell of the
advantages that would come to the poultry-keeper whose eggs were
hatched in December.
Pages:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52