Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/98

Rh However, she brought home an enormous Brahma cock and ten hens, which number was pretty equally divided into her three classes. She was very proud of her purchases, and indeed they were fine fowls. In the evening I made some allusion to the cost of all this carpenter work, carriage-hire, etc., besides the price of the chickens.

"Oh!" said she, "you don't look at the matter in a right light. You haven't studied it up as I have. Now, just let me show you how this thing will pay if carried on properly." Producing a piece of paper covered with figures, she continued: "I begin with ten hens—I got four common ones, because it would make it easier to calculate. After a while I set these ten hens on thirteen eggs each; three of these eggs will probably spoil—that leaves ten chickens hatched out. Of these I will say that half die, that will make five chickens for each hen; you see, I leave a large margin for loss. This makes fifty chickens, and when we add the ten hens, we have sixty fowls at the end of the first year. Next year I set these sixty, and they bring up five chickens each—I am sure there will be a larger proportion than this, but I want to be safe—and that is three hundred chickens; add the hens, and we have three hundred and sixty at the end of the second year. In the third year, calculating in the same safe way, we shall have twenty-one hundred and sixty chickens; in the fourth year there will be twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, and at the end of the fifth year, which is as far as I need to calculate now, we shall have sixty-four thousand and eight hundred chickens. What do you think of that? At seventy-five cents apiece—a very low price—that would be forty-eight thousand and six hundred dollars. Now, what is the