SOLVING THE MYSTERY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIX, Issue 1092, 9 February 1911, Page 23

SOLVING THE MYSTERY.

A gentleman puzzled to know why his fowls never laid, purchased two dozen eggs and took them down to his place in the country. At night he slipped half-a-dozen of these eggs into the nests. “Well,” he said next morning to his man, “none of those fowls laid yet?” “No, sir,” said the man, “they’re very slow, sir, to lay, at this time of the year.” The same thing occurred on the two following nights and mornings. On the fourth morning the attendant appeared with one egg saying, “They’ll soon beg’n to lay now, sir; here’s one on ’m already.” “Why, you scoundrel,” said the master, “I have myself put four-and-twenty eggs into the nests, and you pretend the fowls have only laid one. You clear out.”