Volume Ii Part 44 (2/2)
”Well, why not? they're the best, because it's been noticed, as a general rule--Black hens are the best, you see.”
”Is there any reason for that?”
”There must be a reason; I don't know what it is, but there is one, for sure.--But yes, I do know it--it's because the roosters like hens of that color best.”
Monsieur Jarnouillard had taken the hen and was examining it in every part; he even lifted up her feathers, so that the peasant cried:
”I say! do you propose to pluck her?”
”No; but I want to know what I am buying. She's very thin.”
”Thin! You call that a thin hen! Why, she's in fine case; and then, good layers are never fat; they're just like women: when they get very plump--no more children, no more little ones; the fun's all over.”
”Ah! you know that, do you--and you a gardener?”
”I have heard Doctor Antoine Beaub.i.+.c.hon say so often enough.”
”Well! what price do you want for your hen? Madame Jarnouillard's the one who has taken a whim for having fresh eggs; for, as for me, I don't care anything about them.”
”If you don't want a hen, what made you ask me for one?”
”How much do you want for your hen?”
”Well! if I sell her to you for four francs, it's none too much--if she gives you three eggs a day.”
”Do you take me for a child just out of a crib?”
”Oh, no! deuce take it! if children was born like you, all shrivelled and shrunk, then there wouldn't be any young folks.”
”Name me a reasonable price.”
”You call four francs too much--for a black hen--and one like this!”
”Sell me one that isn't black; I don't care.”
”Just now, this is all I've got. Come, I don't want to be hard with you; give me three francs, and take her.”
”Not if I know it!”
”Well then, how much will you give me for her?”
”Thirty sous--that's quite enough!”
”Thirty sous, for a black hen of this breed! A splendid hen! Come, give me fifty sous.”
”No!”
”What a skinflint this Monsieur Jarnouillard is!--Come, forty sous, and call it a bargain.”
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