Nevertheless we tried it, and extracted one solitary egg from the
basement.

Then, being an engineer by profession, I conceived a mechanical means
of giving those hens the scare of their lives if they persisted
in their antisocial habits. I constructed a "spoof" egg of white
enamelled metal, with hinges that opened when a catch was touched.
Inside I compressed one of those jack-in-the-box snakes that spring
out when free to do so.

It was quite effective--as a parlour-trick. Those hens pecked the
catch loose, and that cockatrice fairly staggered them. It was to them
a clear case of "nourishing a viper." But all was as before.

Nibletts then gave up the case as (what he might be excused for
calling) a "fair corker." Should he wring their (pause) necks?

We thought it best so, and gave him a couple of "laying pullets" for
his trouble. The other eight kept us going monotonously for about a
month.

The house is still on offer. Houses are scarce just now.

I have sown my Wyandottes.
* * * * *
It was the income-tax man that suggested the title that I have given
to my story. I disagreed with him _in toto_. But he persisted that it
wasn't an "expense."

* * * * *