to point east and
west, and each is to have a window; put the door in the middle of the
south wall, and shingle the roof. Digging through three feet of frost
will be hard, but it must be done, and done quickly. I want you to start
your incubator lamps before the 3d of February."

"I can dig the hole without much trouble,--big fire on the ground for
two or three hours will help,--and I can put on the roof and do all the
carpenter work, but I can't lay the brick."

"I'll look out for that part of the job, but I want you to see that
things are pushed, for I shall have a thousand eggs here by February 1st
and another thousand by the 25th, and these eggs mean money."

"What do you have to pay for them?"

"Ten cents apiece,--$200 for two thousand eggs."

"Well, I should say! Are they hand-painted? I wouldn't have had to quit
business if I could have sold my eggs at a quarter of that price."

"That's all right, Sam, but you didn't sell White Wyandotte eggs for
hatching. I've contracted with two of the best-known fanciers of
Wyandottes in the country to send me five hundred eggs apiece February
1st and 25th. I don't think the price is high for the stock."

"Have you decided to keep 'dottes? I hoped you would try Leghorns;
they're great layers."

"Yes, they're great summer layers, but the American birds will beat them
hollow in winter; and I must have as steady a supply of eggs as
possible. My customers don't stop eating eggs in winter, and they'll be
willing to pay more for them at that season. The Leghorn is too small to
make a good broiler, and as half the chicks come cockerels, we must look
out for that."

"Why do you throw down the Plymouth Rocks? They're bigger than 'dottes,
and just as good layers."

"I threw down the barred Plymouth Rocks on account of color; I like
white hens best. It was hard to decide between White Rocks and
Wyandottes, for there's mighty little difference between them as
all-around hens. I really think I chose the 'dottes because the first
reply to my letters was from a man who was breeding them."

"They are 'beauts,' all of them, and I'll give them a good chance to
spread themselves," said Sam.

"What percentage of hatch may we expect from purchased eggs?"

"About sixty chicks out of every hundred eggs, I reckon."

"That would be doing pretty well, wouldn't it? If we had good luck with
the sixty chicks, how many would grow up?"

"Fifty ought to."

"Of these fifty, can we count on