Jerry the orange squirrel was walking down the sidewalk one day when he saw some word balloons floating above the hedge beside him. It was the voice of his friend Charlie the purple giraffe. "A man has to have a proper garden, doesn't he?" Charlie was saying. "And what makes a proper garden? Proper plants! And what do you need for proper plants?"
After each question, Charlie seemed to be waiting for an answer. But no response was visible.
"You need proper dirt!" Charlie continued. "And what do you have to have for proper dirt?"
Intrigued, Jerry scampered to the top of the hedge and stared down. What he saw made the little lines of surprise come out of his head.
"You have to have proper worms!" Bent double, Charlie was busily tying a Windsor knot around the neck of a common garden worm. Beside him, a large tin can--its ragged-edged lid tilted at a rakish angle--squirmed with hundreds of worms in tiny top hats, spats, and bustles.
It wasn't the worms that surprised Jerry, though--Charlie did that sort of thing all the time. It was the fact that Charlie was speaking into thin air.
"Who ya talkin' to, Charlie?" said Jerry.
Charlie was so startled that his eyes momentarily jumped out of his head. But he quickly regained his composure. "The worms?"
"Worms don't have ears."
"Uh ... I was talkin' to you, Jerry."
"You didn't even know I was here."
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