longed to own some, but now the illusion is past. They have been admired
and petted for ages, consecrated as emblems of innocence and peace and
sanctity, regarded as almost sacred from the earliest antiquity. They
have been idealized and praised from Noah to Anacreon, both inclined to
inebriety! But in reality they are a dirty, destructive, greedy lot, and
though fanciers sell them at high prices, they only command twenty-five
cents per pair when sold for the market!

The hens lost half their feathers, often an eye, occasionally a life, in
deadly feuds. My spunky little bantam game cock was always challenging
one of my monster roosters and laying him low, so he had to be sent
away.

John, my eccentric assistant, could abide no possible rival, insulted
every man engaged to help him, occasionally indulging in a free fight
after too frequent visits to the cider barrels of my next neighbor, so
he had to follow the bantam.

Another distress was the constant calls of natives with the most
undesirable things for me to buy; two or three calls daily for a long
time. Boys with eager, ingenuous faces bringing carrier pigeons--pretty
creatures--and I had been told there was money in pigeons. I paid them
extortionate prices on account of extreme ignorance; and the birds, of
course, flew home as soon as released, to be bought again by some
gullible amateur. I had omitted to secure the names and addresses of
these guileless lads.

A sandy-haired, lisping child with chronic catarrh offered me a lot of
pet rats!