A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography

Basket of Chips, page 087

Love mu? Grief hammock which I had stretched from the huge acacia tree to a post in the shade. I would carry her out there to get the sweet outdoors and to be near me. One of these days I was watering with the garden hose. No nozzle was on so a good stream ran forth. I was moving it from plant to plant when our little humming bird dropped down into the water within a few inches of my hand and took his morning bath. His beautiful irridescent colors as he splashed the water up over his body was the most thrilling thing I ever saw. And I put my hand within two inches of it. One day I saw a flash in the air and a whiz like a bullet. Another humming bird had settled on the light wire near the house and our bird was in a terrible fury. How it did maul that one and drive it away ! It had pre-empted our place and no other bird had a right to even rest on the wire. The passing of a beautiful summer. HOME PLEASURES I shall return to the story of happiness following the con- valescence of my mate, her getting back to the daily tasks and the pleasures of our companionship. Much of our pleasure came from our poultry yard, bees, and garden. I had a fine healthy bunch of chicks, - White Leghorn and a few Brahmas, all living together. The development of both was very interesting, as all were the same age and fed the same rations. At two months, the Brahma cockerals were double the weight of the others. This showed conclusively which were the profitable birds for meat. I do not think the Leghorns eat so much as the others. One of the Brahmas weighed even less than the Leghorns and I could see it was doomed unless I took a hand. It was con- stantly crowded away from the food until it was afraid to go near and would have soon been a victim to nature's law had I not fed it by itself, once a day until its crop was filled. Then I 87