Daddy Takes Us to the Garden

Hal," whispered Mab to her brot

e boy. "Daddy knows lots about how to make things grow, and maybe, on

oor. "I don't care when you play soldier, and make believe shoot your pop gun, bu

ot!" excl

d the door the childre

y garden, digging away. Maybe he was planting a bone, thinking he could grow

Roly-Poly!

him 'cause we talked so much about the g

. Blake to the man who had brought home

arden. My name is Porter, I live next door. Only mov

ve Roly-Poly back, I'm also glad to know you're going to have a garden. I'm going to start my two youngste

scratching in a garden, though I plan to keep them in their own

o learn all they ca

Mr. Porter. "Well, doggie, I guess you're glad to get back home," and he ga

pet. I guess there will be many gardens on our street this Summer, and no dogs w

mised they woul

little boy next doo

bed with you, toodlekins!" and he made believe R

Mab why it was that seeds grew when planted in the ground. But before going to school on Monday the brother and si

rter who lived next door. He was raking up some dried leav

ed Mr. Porter. "Have you g

," answe

seeds planted in th

e who'll have the finest garden," went

up so he can't hurt y

"I haven't planted any seeds yet, and shall not unti

will," cried Hal, runn

te for school

ther. "Roly-Poly cried when I shu

Over into Mr. Porter's yard ran Roly and Sammie laughed when he saw Hal's p

dog!" warned Mab, sha

Sammie with a laugh as he

d his father as Hal and

box of tomato seeds in the warm sun before going to school, moving it when they came home at noon and in the afternoon they also changed it

e back from his business trip, Hal

e are a lot of littl

ning to grow," said Daddy Bl

grow and green leave

re inside this tiny little thing," and he held out in his hand a tomato seed, "somewhere there i

ave hearts?

of a tree as it's heart and I suppose the middle of a seed, where its life

ellow stone-the kind that

en it is planted it begins to grow and it can move. It can push its leaves up

to life and make it

n can shine on it, then the seed begins to awaken. Something inside it-a germ some call it-begins to swell. It gets larger-the seed is germinating. The hard outside shell, or husk, gets soft and breaks open. The heart inside swells larger and larger. A tiny root appears a

ne part of the seed grows down

will see these little tomato plants growing more and more, and, as

rger than the head of a pin-should have locked up in its heart such things as roots and leaves, and that,

show took a rabbit, a guinea pig and a lot o

hem out again to make you think they were there all the while. But roots, seeds and tomatoes are not exactly inside the seed all the while. The

atoes in the a

nd now, we could not live grow, and neither could plants. Plants also have to have water to drink, as we do, and food to eat, only t

n the box in the house. Each day the tiny green leaves became

h to transplant, or set out in

and Mab why seeds grow, the children, coming home

wn earth was being torn up by a big shiny thing wh

our garden?" cried H

lowing," said

il the garden?" M

addy Blake tell you that the ground must be plowed or chopped up, an

so he did,

it. "The ground must be plowed or spaded. Spading is all right for a smal

ther side from where the new Porter family lived, was a large vacant lo

l. A plow cuts through the soil as the horses pull it after them, and it is so shaped that the upper part of the earth is turned over, bringing up to the top, where the sun can shine on it, the

MOOTH to make a garden," said Mab. "Th

ng just then, in time to watch the man plowing. "Those long lin

t anything in t

whatever you planted came up, you could not work around them well to cut down the we

that?" a

man will use a tooth harrow. It is called that because it is made of iron spikes, or teeth, driven through some long beams of wood. The teeth stick through and when

soil in the Blake garden, and Hal and Mab looked on every minute th

's ground looked they saw little Sammie standing near. T

it?" as

I don't like a snake. I'm goin

I don't like snakes either;

ake, Sammie? Sh

to bite! I run!" and away he started, but he fell down on the rough

laugh, "It's only a big angle worm. That

the little boy

remember how we went fishing wi

t I thought it

up the worm. It was a large one and had b

'em," said Mab wit

id Mr. Porter coming

od for fishi

not get so hard. The earth around the roots of trees and plants ought to be kept loose and dug u

rm, which at once began to crawl slowly along, stretching

came with the spiked, or tooth, harrow, and his horses dragged this over the ground several times. So

ings, like lettuce and tomatoes," sai

p too?" Hal w

u work around in the garden, digging up the earth above the roots of your plants, keeping the weeds cut down, the better your things will grow

lant my beans

. Then mark it off into rows. You should plant your beans in rows with the rows about two feet apart, and put the b

ant my corn?

y Blake. "You should have your rows from two to three feet apart and each h

y grow on a hi

I mean was that after your corn begins to grow, the ground is hoed around the corn stalks in a sort of little hill.

d sweet corn, such as we eat green from the cob after it is boiled. That may not grow so high. But in a day or so i

y Blake, his wife, Aunt Lollypop and Uncle Pennywait also raked and smoothed the parts of the g

nce. If Roly-Poly had been there maybe Sammie would have thrown the stones for the little poodle dog to run after. But Roly had been sent away for a

ings are larger and well-enough grown so

rake handle, and into the holes she dropped the beans, covering them with earth so that they were about two inches down from the top. Hal's corn did not have to be pla

my beans will g

n?" Hal wan

ther, "but you can't see them until about a week. Then the little leaves appear. Hal'

out in the garden and looked at where they had

aid Mab at last. "Maybe some worms came and too

," beg

poked in the earth until she s

beans are all swell

swelled and split apart, and inside the tw

cried. "The beans are growing-they

she was sure her

her part of the garden before starting

ed wrong! They're growing upside down! The beans are all pus