Sawdust

Poem (Untitled, Author Unknown)

Please stop me if your've heard this plan,
(It's ancient as the dickens)
Of how a very stingy man
Thought he'd get rich with chickens.
Said he, "I'll not feed corn or wheat,
I can't afford to buy it;
But sawdust should be good to eat,
I'll get a hen and try it."
So he mixed sawdust with some oats,
And bought a female chicken,
And she waxed fat, like thrifty shoats,
And did not die, nor sicken.
So day by day this thrifty guy,
Who should have had his jaw bust,
Cut down the oats, till bye and bye
He fed her naught but sawdust.
And she laid eggs, and all went well,
Until one day he set her,
And in three weeks she hatched out, well...
Her hatch could have been better.
For oh, my friends, from out those eggs,
Instead of domineckers,
There came two chickens with peg legs,
And thirteen...yes...woodpeckers!