no THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



for carpentry can easily arrange this. Indeed it was 

 only yesterday that in opening a chest of drawers I came 

 across a small lead saw bought for sixpence, with which 

 you succeeded in quite cutting through the large Wisteria 

 vine on Grandma Bartram's porch ! I wished to punish 

 you, but she said ' No, Susanna, rather preserve the 

 tool as a memento of his industry and patience.' 



" I wish that I could be near to witness your natural 

 surprise on receiving this token of our approval, but I 

 must trust Mary to write us of it. 

 " Your mother, 



" SUSAN BARTRAM PENROSE." 



With something between a groan and a laugh Bart 

 dropped this letter into my lap, with the others. 



"So, after a successful struggle all these five years 

 of our country life against the fatal magnetism of Hens 

 that has run epidemic up and down the population of 

 commuting householders, bringing financial prostration 

 to some and the purely nervous article to others ; after 

 avoiding ' The Wars of the Chickens, or Who scratched 

 up those Early Peas,' events as celebrated in local 

 history as the Revolution or War of the Rebellion, we 

 are to be forced into the chicken business for the good of 

 Bart's health and pocket, and my mental discipline, 



