130 FIVE ACKES TOO MUCH. 



ever; but the moment lie was gone, Patrick and I 

 caught every chicken, and, in spite of struggles and 

 cries, forced two whole peppers for two were cer 

 tainly better than one down the throat of each, and 

 turned them out of the coop. 



They did not seem to be much improved by the 

 operation, and went &quot;gaping&quot; round the premises in 

 a miserable way, leaving one of their number dead 

 here and another there, till they happened to attract 

 the attention of my neighbor s pups. I have re 

 ferred to these pups before. They were playful 

 creatures ; if there was any horrible and disgusting 

 injury that they could, in a frolicsome mood, inflict 

 upon me, they never missed the chance. They tore 

 up the sticks that I set to mark my flowers; they 

 scratched and dug in my strawberry bed, which I 

 had succeeded in planting before the summer was 

 over; they dragged in every direction my clothes 

 that were laid out to bleach ; they tormented my fa 

 vorite cat; they appeared to think of nothing but 

 plan deviltry against me, and do nothing but exe 

 cute it. When the more flagrant of these wrongs 

 had from time to time been inflicted, my neighbor 

 called to apologize blandly and express his regrets, 

 but never once proposed to kill the dreadful brutes. 



The moment these pups saw my chickens they 



