ight of him. "Where have you
been, old horse? I went to your room, but you weren't there. Bathing?
Hope it's made you feel fit for work, because we've got to buckle to
this morning."

"The fowls have arrived, Mr. Garnet," said Mrs. Ukridge, opening her
eyes till she looked like an astonished kitten. "_Such_ a lot of them!
They're making such a noise!"

And to support her statement there floated through the window a
cackling, which, for volume and variety of key, beat anything that
Garnet had ever heard. Judging from the noise, it seemed as if England
had been drained of fowls and the entire tribe of them dumped into the
yard of the Ukridge's farm.

"There seems to have been no stint," he said, sitting down. "Did you
order a million or only nine hundred thousand?"

"Good many, aren't there?" said Ukridge complacently. "But that's
what we want. No good starting on a small scale. The more you have,
the bigger the profits."

"What sort have you got mostly?"

"Oh, all sorts. Bless you, people don't mind what breed a fowl is, so
long as it _is_ a fowl. These dealer chaps were so infernally
particular. 'Any Dorkings?' they said. 'All right,' I said, 'bring on
your Dorkings.' 'Or perhaps you want a few Minorcas?' 'Very well,' I
said, 'show Minorcas.' They were going on--they'd have gone on for
hours, but I stopped 'em. 'Look here, Maximilian,' I said to the
manager Johnny--decent old chap, with the manners of a marquis--'look
here,' I said, 'life is short, and we're neither of us as young as we
used to be. Don't let us waste the golden hours playing guessing
games. I want fowls. You sell fowls. So give me some of all sorts.'
And he has, by Jove! There must be one of every breed ever invented."

"Where are you going to put them?"

"That spot we chose by the paddock. That's the place. Plenty of mud
for them to scratch about in, and they can go into the field when they
want to, and pick up worms, or whatever they feed on. We must rig them
up some sort of a shanty, I suppose, this morning. We'll go and tell
'em to send up some wire netting and stuff from the town."

"Then we shall want hencoops. We shall have to make those."

"Of course. So we shall. Millie, didn't I tell you that old Garnet was
the man to think of things! I forgot the coops. We can't buy some, I
suppose? On tick?"

"Cheaper to make them. Suppose we get a lot of boxes. Soap boxes are
as good as any. It won't take long to knock up a few coops."

Ukri