per day, the
number spoiled, and finally, the number hatched. Each chick, on emerging
from its shell, was registered, and an account kept of its subsequent
life and adventures. There were frequent calculations regarding the
advantages of various methods of treatment, and there were statements of
the results of a great many experiments--something like this: "Set Toppy
and her sister Pinky, April 2nd 187-; Toppy with twelve eggs,--three
Brahma, four common, and five Leghorn; Pinky with thirteen eggs (as she
weighs four ounces more than her sister), of which three were Leghorn,
five common, and five Brahma. During the twenty-second and twenty-third
of April (same year) Toppy hatched out four Brahmas, two commons, and
three Leghorns, while her sister, on these days and the morning of the
day following, hatched two Leghorns, six commons, and only one Brahma.
Now, could Toppy, who had only three Brahma eggs, and hatched out four
of that breed, have exchanged eggs with her sister, thus making it
possible for her to hatch out six common chickens, when she only had
five eggs of that kind? Or, did the eggs get mixed up in some way before
going into the possession of the hens? Look into probabilities."

These probabilities must have puzzled Euphemia a great deal, but
they never disturbed her equanimity. She was always as tranquil and
good-humored about her poultry-yard as if every hen laid an egg every
day, and a hen-chick was hatched out of every egg.

For it may be remembered that the principle underlying Euphemia's
management of her poultry was what might be designated as the
"cumulative hatch." That is, she wished every chicken hatched in her
yard to become the mother of a brood of her own during the year, and
every one of this brood to raise another brood the next year, and so on,
in a kind of geometrical progression. This plan called for a great many
mother-fowls, and so Euphemia based her highest hopes on a great annual
preponderance of hens.

We ate a good many young roosters that fall, for Euphemia would not
allow all the products of her yard to go to market, and, also, a great
many eggs and fowls were sold. She had not contented herself with her
original stock of poultry, but had bought fowls during the winter, and
she certainly had extraordinary good luck, or else her extraordinary
system worked extraordinarily well.

CHAPTER XIII. POMONA'S NOVEL.

It was in the latter part of August of that year that it beca