THE FUN OF MAKING GARDEN 65 
the slow brother given to laziness still reiterateth 
his fumbled remark, “Chickens, my neighbor’s 
chickens—what shall I do with them?” There 
he standeth on one leg like a reflective chicken 
instead of scratching with both feet like an 
unsuperannuated chicken. To me who am a min- 
ister, the question seems frivolous. What do with 
the neighbor’s chickens? Why, eat them. What 
but a dull brain would find a neighbor’s chicken 
an impediment to gardening? Chickens facilitate 
gardening. They strengthen the gardener, and 
so help the gardenee! What is in the garden may 
safely be included as a part of the garden and 
as much planted as the lettuce or onions! And 
what is planted in the garden is the evident 
property of the gardener. 
And if this logic seem to you specious, you not 
being adept in the logic of gardening, look at 
your neighbor’s chickens in your garden in an- 
other light. They are intruders. Now, what- 
ever intrudes on a garden is a weed, and a weed, 
as even a not lazy gardener knows, is to be hoed 
up. The chicken of your neighbor is a weed, 
therefore by this irresistible logic, is to be hoed 
up. When a chicken is hoed up he will return 
no more. That will end the chicken. 
Hence he or she, according to the crow or cackle, 
is not to be set down as an impediment but simply 
as a weedy incident to be overcome with the hoe. 
Or if you care to do so, take another view of 
your neighbor’s chicken. It is a critter, and 
