This I attribute to her excellent care of them, generous diet, but principally to the fact of the elimination of all the roosters among the flock during the season between the "first of May and December first," with one exception.

"Brigham," an immensely large, old, red Shanghai rooster, a most pompous and dignified old chap.

A special pet of Aunt Sarah's, she having raised him from a valuable "setting" of eggs given her, and as the egg from which "Brigham," as he was called, emerged, was the only one of the lot which proved fertile, he was valued accordingly and given a longer lease of life than the other roosters, and was usually either confined or allowed to roam outside the chicken yard during the summer months; in the winter, being a swift runner, he usually gobbled up two shares of food before the hens arrived.

That accounted for his great size.

The old rooster was also noted for his loud crowing.
One day in early Spring, John Landis came into the house hurriedly, saying, "Sarah, your old Shanghai rooster is sick." "Yes," answered his wife, "I missed hearing him crow this morning; he is usually as regular as an alarm clock." She hurried to the barnyard, picked up poor Brigham, wrapped him carefully in a piece of blanket and laid him in a small shed.