The young lady asked if she might have five minutes to scribble a few notes. The priest said he would wait a few minutes, but it did not matter much what she said. "But couldn't some one dance or sing," said the young lady. "Dancing and singing!" said the priest. "No!" And the young lady hurriedly scribbled a few notes about fowls for laying, fowls for fattening, regular feeding, warm houses, and something about a percentage of mineral matter. She had not half finished when the priest said:-- "Now will you stand over there near the harmonium. Whom shall I announce?" The young woman told him her name, and he led her to the harmonium and left her talking, addressing most of her instruction to Biddy M'Hale, a long, thin, pale-faced woman, with wistful eyes. "This won't do," said the priest, interrupting the lecturer,--"I'm not speaking to you, miss, but to my people. I don't see one of you taking notes, not even you, Biddy M'Hale, though you have made a fortune out of your hins. Didn't I tell you from the pulpit that you were to bring pencil and paper and write down all you heard. If you had known years ago all this young lady is going to tell you you would be rolling in your carriages to-day." Then the priest asked the lecturer to go on, and the lady explained that to get hens to lay about Christmas time, when eggs fetched the best price, you must bring on your pullets early. "You must," she said, "set your eggs in January." "You hear that," said the priest. "Is there anyone who has got anything to say about that? Why is it that you don't set your eggs in January?" No one answered, and the lecturer went on to tell of the advantages that would come to the poultry-keeper whose eggs were hatched in December. As she said this, the priest's eyes fell upon Biddy M'Hale, and, seeing that she was smiling, he asked her if there was any reason why eggs could not be hatched in the beginning of January. "Now, Biddy, you must know all about this, and I insist on your telling us. We are here to learn." Biddy did not answer. "Then what were you smiling at?" "I wasn't smiling, your reverence." "Yes; I saw you smiling. Is it because you think there isn't a brooding hin in January?" It had not occurred to the lecturer that hens might not be brooding so early in the year, and she waited anxiously. At last Biddy said:-- "Well, your reverence, it isn't because there are no hins brooding. You'll get brooding hins at every time in the year; but, you see, you can't rear chickens earlier than March. The end of February is the earliest I have ever seen. But, of course, if you could rear them in January, all that the young lady said would be quite right. I have nothing to say agin it. I have no fault to find with anything she says, your reverence." "Only that it can't be done." said the priest. "Well, you ought to know, Biddy." The villagers were laughing.