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This is a social gift, of small avail to the men working alone in their gardens; but it serves them well during the day's work with their mates, or when two or three of them together tackle some job of their own, such as cleaning out a well, or putting up a fowl-house.
The people who are condemned to live in those parts know that deaths, many and mysterious, go about there in the night, seeking victims, and that fowls must, in consequence, be well penned. Yet they die; and it has been said that where a snake can squeeze into a fowl-house, there a genet can follow perhaps dealing with the snake first, and the fowls afterwards.
A small island, fairly laughing with flowers in full bloom, and affording little more space than just enough for a picturesque little building, seemingly a fowl-house arose from the lake not far from its northern shore to which it was connected by means of an inconceivably light looking and yet very primitive bridge. It was formed of a single, broad and thick plank of the tulip wood.
But the fox was not there to hear this insult, for she had gone off to a neighbouring fowl-house, where she had noticed some fat young chickens the day before. 'Perhaps I did treat him rather badly, she said to herself. 'But it seems getting cloudy, and if there should be heavy rain the other bucket will fill and sink to the bottom, and his will go up at least it may!
In the middle of the day a sort of forlorn-hope was organized by the gentlemen to try to find the fowl-house, but they could not get through the drift: however, they dug a passage to the wash-house, and returned in triumph with about a pound of very rusty bacon they had found hanging up there; this was useless without fuel, so they dug for a little gate leading to the garden, fortunately hit its whereabouts, and soon had it broken up and in the kitchen grate.
They are left yoked for several days; it seems rather hard upon them, but, of course, they have to be broken in. Friday, January 11. We are going to keep fowls. I intended to buy some, and spoke to one or two people, but they quite scorned the idea of selling they would give them. About half-a-dozen have already been promised. Tom Rogers started on the fowl-house to-day.
But you must be used to such magnificent things now that perhaps you will not care for my small place." "I shall care as much as ever. I prefer small things to great yet." "And my fowl-house you shall see that and my pigeons. You used to be so fond of live creatures, Bessie." "By the by, Miss Buff, have you discovered yet the depredator of your poultry-yard?" Mrs. Carnegie asked.
The next morning one of the brothers brought me a beautiful opossum, which had been caught in the fowl-house a little before sunrise. It was not so large as a rat, and had soft brown fur, paler beneath and on the face, with a black stripe on each cheek.
Poison will be the only method of destroying or reducing the numbers of the iguana, who, robber as he is, yet has his good points, as has even the sneaking, blood-loving native cat for both are merciless foes to snakes of all kinds; and 'tis better to have an energetic and hungry native cat and a score of wily iguanas working havoc among the tenants of your fowl-house than one brown or an equally deadly "bandy-bandy" snake within half a mile.
Methought he protested too much, but knowing that men and mules were dead beat, and that we had a long way to go, I told Salam that the guest-house would serve, and the headman lead the way to a tapia building that would be called a very small barn, or a large fowl-house, in England.
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