"I'm going to raise chickens; and I thought it would be nice to sow buckwheat, and let them run in it."
"Turnin' farmer, hey? 'Pears to me you're makin' an airly beginnin'."
Hal smiled pleasantly.
"You'll find chickens an awful sight o' bother."
"I thought I'd try them."
"Goin' to garden any?"
"A little."
"Hens and gardens are about like fox an' geese. One's death on the other. But you kin have the lot."
So Hal asked Abel Kinsey to come over and plough. In return he helped plant potatoes and drop corn for two Saturdays. By this time there was a third hen setting.
House-cleaning had come on, and Granny was pretty busy. But she and Hal were up early in the morning garden-making. The plot belonging to the cottage was about two acres. Hal removed his chicken-coops to the lot, and covered his young vegetables with brush to protect them from incursions,—pease, beans, lettuce, beets, and sweet-corn; and the rest was given over to the chickens.