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The Pick, who had at least two good points in his favor, stepped forward, made a stiff little bow with his handle, and said:

“What my friends Rake and Shovel have told you, of course is true. They are useful, each in his own way. But I do the really hard work of the garden. When the earth is packed hard and dry, so that neither the Shovel nor the Rake can be used, Jake always comes and gets me. I am larger and stronger than either the Rake or the Shovel, though of course the Rake has a longer handle. But it is a very thin handle, and if Jake struck as hard a blow with the Rake as he strikes with me, the Rake’s handle would break. And no matter how hard he digs the Shovel into the hard ground, no earth can be turned over until I first loosen it. So I claim the prize.”

The Pick stepped back in line with the other two, all three bowed politely and waited.

“What am I to do now?” asked the Elephant.

“You must act as Judge and tell which of us is the most useful, to decide who gets the prize,” said the Rake.

“That is it,” chimed in the Pick and the Shovel.

“This is very hard–very hard indeed,” sighed the Elephant. “In fact I never before knew how hard it was to decide between right and wrong. Let me think a minute.”

He passed his trunk over his head, which was beginning to ache with all the talk he had listened to.

“Hum! Let me see now,” the Elephant spoke slowly. “It is true, Mr. Shovel, that you are very useful. Without you the ground could not be turned.”

“There! See! I told you I’d get the prize!” cried the Shovel.

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” trumpeted the Elephant. “I have not finished. It is also true,” he went on, “that the Rake is very useful. Before the Shovel can be used the ground must be raked clean, and after the Shovel has spaded the earth, it must be raked smooth.”

“There! I knew it! Oh, what a fine Judge! He is going to say I am entitled to the prize!” exclaimed the Rake, laughing.

“Not yet! Wait a minute!” cried the Elephant. “I have not finished! I want to say that the Pick used very good arguments. He is right when he says without him, in case the ground is hard, nothing can be done. And he certainly is the strongest, so I think—-“

“Oh, ho! What did I tell you! I get the prize!” cried the Pick.

“Wait a minute! I have not finished!” said the Elephant Judge. “What I was going to say was that before I could decide who wins I must see the prize. What is the prize? Bring it here that I may see it, and then I will decide who is to get it.”

“Oh, the prize!” cried the Shovel.

“That’s so, we forgot all about it!” gasped the Rake.

“What was the prize to be?” asked the Pick. “I declare we did not settle on any. How stupid!”

“Until I see the prize I cannot give judgment,” said the Elephant; “so the case will have to ‘go over,’ as I believe they say in Court, until the prize is brought here. Stop disputing now, and get me the prize!”

“Yes! Yes! The prize! The prize!” cried the Rake, the Shovel and the Pick, and away they scurried.

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” laughed another voice in the corner whence had come the three tools.

“What silly chaps!” came in another voice.

“To forget the most important thing of all–the prize!” added another.

“Who are you, if you please?” asked the Elephant, stepping down off the onion crate.

“I’m the Hoe,” was the answer of the first. “If I had wished I could have told how useful I am. In fact, I think I will have a try for the prize.”

“I’m just as much entitled to it as you are,” some one else said. “You needn’t think you can get ahead of me!”