Choice large capons and ducks were in steady demand, but I blushed for my profession when I read that roasting chickens were running coarse, staggy, and of irregular value.

Old hens were held firmly at sixpence, and it is my experience that they always have to be, at whatever price.
Geese were plenty, dull, and weak.

Old cocks,--why don't they say roosters ?--declined to threepence ha'penny on Thursday in sympathy with fowls,--and who shall say that chivalry is dead?
Turkeys were a trifle steadier, and there was a speculative movement in limed eggs.

All this was illuminating, and I only wished I were quite certain whether the sympathetic old roosters were threepence ha'penny apiece, or a pound.
{The gadabout hen: p105.jpg} Everything happened as it should, on this first business journey of my life, which is equivalent to saying that nothing happened at all.
Songhurst's Tea Rooms took five dozen eggs and told me to bring six dozen the next week.

Argent's Dining Parlours purchased three pairs of chickens and four rabbits.