Robin Hood's Barn 



taste led to chives. Still I felt that this was no 

 time to draw my social distinctions, and without 

 regard to their class I dispatched them, using no 

 slug-shot, but a firm foot. 



Modem criminologists tell us, I know, that in 

 judging the criminal, we must vmderstand his 

 psychology, enter into his point of view. Now 

 I did understand the psychology of Shellover and 

 Creep. Many a night when they had had the 

 range of my garden and I had lain helpless, I 

 had taken a painful delight in planning out their 

 excursions, in making their menus, varying their 

 courses with the ingenuity of a chef. Hors 

 d'ceuvres. Were there not those first rare-ripes? 

 One slim little prong would give a zest to the 

 appetite. Or perhaps a plump radish nest- 

 ling near by. If their tastes were more delicate, 

 there were squashes just forming, in which they 

 might make small toothsome dents. They recog- 

 nized, as I knew, no pihce de resistance. They 

 merely paused longest over delphinium stalks, 

 especially when new and juicy and garnished 

 with their own leaves. Parsley, they preferred 

 as a separate dish or one served with vegetables, 

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