MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 41 



chickens broiled. He will take them 

 away at once. The- neighbors small 

 children are also out of place in your 

 garden, in strawberry and currant time. 

 I hope I appreciate the value of children. 

 We should soon come to nothing without 

 them, though the Shakers have the best 

 gardens in the world. Without them 

 the common school would languish. 

 But the problem is, what to do with 

 them in a garden. For they are not 

 good to eat, and there is a law against 

 making away with them. The law is 

 not very well enforced, it is true ; for 

 people do thin them out with constant 

 dosing, paregoric, and soothing-sirups, 

 and scanty clothing. But I, for one, 

 feel that it would not be right, aside 

 from the law, to take the life, even of 

 the smallest child, for the sake of a 

 little fruit, more or less, in the garden. 

 I may be wrong ; but these are my 



