"Is that the way to answer your mother?"
"Yesum, I mean nomum."
"I want you to stay out in the front yard where you can watch my flower garden this afternoon. I have planted some flower seeds out there and I want you to keep the neighbors' hens way. Your father is going to eput a wire netting around the garden as soon as he can get a chance."
"Why not ask the neighbors to keep their hens at home?" mildly inquired Mr. Brown.
"I have told them time and time again, hut the Bakers say it must be the Jones' hens and the Joneses say it is the Bakers' hens. As a matter of fact all their hens come over, but I don't want to make a fuss, I can't afford to lose the only two neighbors I have."
"But ma, I promised Ned I'd go fishing with him."
"You had no business to promise anything of the kind, now go out there and say no more about it."
It was a warm spring day, just the right kind of weather to go fishing or rambling through the woods or playing marbles with the other boys or to do almost anything except stay in the front yard and watch neighbors' hens. Willie thought himself much abused and cast about for a means of escape. He dared not run away; he had tried that before and the memory of the results was rather painful. A shrill whistle interrupted his bitter thought and a moment later Ned came in view carrying a fishing rod, basket, and can of bait.
"Hello, Bill, ain't yer ready yet?"
"Can't go."