A NEW GAME
"Mother, what can we do now?"
"Tell us something to play, please! We want to have some fun!"
As Harry and Mabel Blake said this they walked slowly up the path toward the front porch, on which their mother was sitting one early Spring day. The two children did not look very happy.
"What can we do?" asked Hal, as he was called more often than Harry.
"There isn't any more fun," complained Mab, to which her name was often shortened.
"Oh, my!" laughed Mother Blake. "Such a sadness! What doleful faces you both have. I hope they don't freeze so and stay that way. It would be dreadful!"
"It can't freeze," said Hal. "It's too warm. Daddy told us how cold it had to be to freeze. The ther—ther—Oh, well the thing you tell how cold it is—has to get down to where it says number 32 before there's ice."
"You mean the thermometer," said Mab.
"That's it," agreed Hal. "And look, the shiny thing—mercury, that's the name of it—the mercury is at 60 now. It can't freeze, Mother."
"Well, I'm glad it can't, for I wouldn't want your face to turn into ice the way it looked a little while ago."
"But there's no fun, Mother," and Mab, whose face, as had her brother's, had lost its fretful look while they were talking about the thermometer, again seemed cross and unhappy. "We can't have any fun!"
"Why don't you play some games?" asked Mrs. Blake, smiling at the two children.
"We did," answered Hal. "We tried to play tag, but it's too muddy to run off the paths, and it's no fun, staying in one place. We can't play ball, 'cause Mab can't throw like a boy, and I'm not going to play doll with her."
"I didn't ask you to!" said Mab quickly. "I was going to play doll by myself."
"Yes, but you'd want me to be a doctor, or something, when your doll got sick—you always do."
"I should think that would be fun," said Mother Blake. "Why don't you play doll and doctor?"
"I'm not going to play doll!" declared Hal, and his face looked crosser than ever.
"Oh, it isn't nice to talk that way," said his mother. "You ought to be glad if Mab wanted you to be a doctor for her sick doll. But perhaps you can think of something else—some new game. Just sit down a moment and we'll talk. Then perhaps you'll think of something. I wonder why it is so warm to-day, and why there is no danger of anything freezing—not your faces of course, for I know you wouldn't let that happen. But why is it so warm; do you know?"
"'Cause it's Spring," answered Hal. "Everybody knows that."
"Oh, no, not everybody," replied his mother. "Your dog Roly-Poly doesn't know it."
"Oh, yes, Mother! I think he does!" cried Mab. "He was rolling over and over in the grass to-day, even if it was all wet like a sponge. He never did that in the Winter."
"Well, perhaps dogs and cats do know when it is Spring. The birds do, I'm sure, for then they come up from the South, where they have spent the Winter, and begin to build their nests. So you think it is warm to-day because it is Spring; do you, Hal?"
"Yes, Mother," he replied. "It's time Winter was gone, anyhow. And the trees know it is going to be Summer soon, for they are swelling out their buds."
"And after a while there'll be flowers," added Mab. "Didn't we have fun, Hal, when Daddy took us hunting flowers?"
"Yes, and when he took us to the woods, and to see the different kinds of birds," added the little boy. "We had lots of fun then."
"I wish we could have some of that kind of fun now," went on Mab. "When's Daddy coming home, Mother?"
"Oh, not for quite a while. He has to work and earn money you know. He has to earn more than ever, now that everything costs so much on account of the war. Daddies don't have a very easy time these days."
"Do Mothers?" asked Mab, thinking of how she played mother to her dolls. Maybe, she thought, she could make up a new game, pretending how hard it was for dolls' mothers these days.
"Well, mothers have to do many things they did not have to do when things to eat and wear did not cost so much," spoke Mother Blake. "We have to make one loaf of bread go almost as far as two loaves used to go, and as for clothes—well, I am mending some of yours, Hal, that, last year, I thought were hardly useful any more. But we must save all we can. So that's why Daddy has to work harder and longer, and why he can't come home Saturday afternoons as early as he used to."
It was a Saturday afternoon when Hal and Mab found so much fault about not having any fun. Almost any other day they would have been in school, and have been busy over their lessons. But just now they wanted to play and they were not having a very jolly time, for they could not think of anything to do. Or, at least, they thought they could not.
"What makes it Spring?" asked Hal, after a bit, as he watched his mother putting a patch on his little trousers. Hal remembered how he tore a hole in them one day sliding down a cellar door.
"Tell us what makes Spring, Mother," went on Mab. "That will be as much fun as playing, I guess."
"The sun makes the Spring," said Mrs. Blake "Spring is one of the four seasons. I wonder if you can tell me the others?"
"Which one starts?" asked Hal.
"Spring, of course," exclaimed Mab. "You have to start with something growing, and things grow in the Spring."
"That is right," said Mrs. Blake. "Spring is the beginning of life in the world, when the flowers and birds begin to grow; the flowers from little buds and the birds from little eggs. What comes next?"
"Summer!" cried Hal. "Then's when we can have fun. The ground is dry, so we can play marbles and fly kites. And we can go in swimming and have a long vacation. Summer's the jolly time!"
"It is a time when things grow that start in the Spring," said Mother Blake. "What comes after Summer?"
"Autumn," answered Mab. "Some folks call it Fall. Why do they, Mother?"
"Because the leaves fall from the trees, perhaps. It is a time when the trees and bushes go to sleep, and when most birds fly down to the warm South. And what comes after Autumn or Fall?"
"Christmas!" cried Hal.
"Yes, so it does!" laughed Mrs. Blake. "And I guess most children would say the same thing. But I meant what season."
"It's Winter," Hal said. "Let's see if I know 'em. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter," he recited. "Four seasons, and this is Spring. I wish it would hurry up and be Summer."
"So do I," agreed Mab. "You can't have any fun now. It's too wet to go without your rubbers, too cold to go without a coat and almost too hot to wear one. I like Summer best."
"And I like Fall and Winter," said Hal. "But let's do something Mab. Let's have some fun. What can we do, Mother?" and back the children were, just where they started.
"Why don't you get Roly-Poly and play with him?" asked Mrs. Blake.
"He's gone away. I guess he ran down to Daddy's office like he does sometimes," said Mab.
"Let's go down after him," exclaimed Hal. "That'll be some fun."
"I don't want to," spoke Mab. "I'd rather play with my doll."
"You never want to do anything I want to play?" complained Hal. "Can't she come with me after Roly-Poly, Mother?"
"Well, I don't know. Can't you both play something here until Daddy comes home? Why don't you play bean-bag?"
"We did, but Hal always throws 'em over my head and I can't reach," Mab said.
"She throws crooked," complained Hal.
"Oh, my dears! I think you each must have the Spring Fever!" laughed Mother Blake. "Try and be nicer toward one another. Let me see now. How would you like to help me bake a cake, Mab?"
"Oh, that will be fun!" and Mab jumped up from the porch, where she had been sitting near her mother's rocking chair, and began to clap her hands. "May I stir it myself, and put the dough in the pans?
"Yes, I think so."
"Pooh! That's no fun for me!" remarked Hal. "I want to have some fun, too."
"You may clean out the chocolate or frosting dish—whichever kind of a cake we make," offered Mab. "You always like to scrape out the chocolate dish, Hal."
"Yes, I like that," he said, smiling a little.
"Well, you may have it all alone this time, if I make the cake," went on Mab. Nearly always she and Hal shared this pleasure—that of scraping out, with a knife or spoon, the chocolate or sugar icing dish from which Mother Blake took the sweet stuff for the top and inside the layers of the cake. "Come on, Hal!"
Hal was willing enough now, and soon he and his sister were in the kitchen, helping Mother Blake with her cake-making. Though, to tell the truth, Mab and Mrs. Blake did most of the work.
While the three were in the midst of their cake-making, into the kitchen rushed a little poodle dog, whirling around, barking and trying to catch his tail.
"Oh, Roly-Poly, where have you been?" cried Hal. "Did Daddy come home with you?"
"Bow-wow!" barked Roly-Poly, which might mean "no" or "yes," just as you happened to listen to his bark.
"Oh, don't get in my way, Roly!" called Mab as the little dog danced about in front of her, while she was carrying a pan filled with cake dough toward the oven. "Look out! Oh, there it goes."
Just what Mab had feared came to pass. She tripped over the poodle dog, and, to save herself from falling, she had to drop the pan of cake dough. Down it fell, right on Roly-Poly's back.
"Bow-wow-wow!" he barked and growled at the same time.
"Oh, look at him!" laughed Hal "He's a regular cake himself."
"Don't let him run through the house that way!" called Mother Blake. "He'll get the carpets and furniture all dough. Get him, Hal!"
Hal made a grab for the little pet dog, and caught him by his tail. This made Roly-Poly howl louder than ever, until Hal, not wishing to hurt his pet, managed to get him in his arms. But of course this made Hal's waist all covered with cake dough.
"Never mind," said Mother Blake, as she saw Hal looking at himself in dismay. "It will all wash off. Better to have it on your waist than on the carpets. Why, Mab! What's the matter?" for Mab was crying softly.
"Oh—Oh, my—my nice ca-cake is all spoiled," she sobbed.
"Oh, no it isn't!" comforted Mother Blake. "Only one pan of dough is spilled, and there is plenty more. The kitchen floor can easily be washed, and so can Roly Poly.
"Hal," went on his mother, "you take the dog up to the bath tub and give him a good scrubbing. He'll like that. Take off your own waist and let the water run on that. I'll wipe up the floor and you can fill another pan and put it in the oven, Mab. Don't cry! We'll have the cake in time for supper yet."
So Mab dried her tears and once more began on the cake, while Mrs. Blake cleaned up the dough from the floor. In a little while the cake was baking in the oven, and Hal came down stairs, rather wet and splattered, but clean. With him was Roly-Poly, looking half drowned, but also clean.
"Well, we did a lot of things!" said Hal, when he had on dry clothes, and he and Mab were waiting for the cake to be baked, after which the chocolate would be spread over it. "It was fun, wasn't it?"
"I—I guess so," answered Mab, not quite sure. "Did I hurt Roly when I stepped on him?"
"I guess not. He splashed water all over me when I put him in the bath tub, though. I pretended he was a submarine ship and he swam all around."
"I wish I had seen him."
"I'll make him do it again," and Hal started toward the stairs with Roly in his arms.
"No, please don't!" laughed Mother Blake. "One bath a day is enough. Besides, I think it's time to take the cake out, Mab."
When the chocolate had been spread on, and Hal had scraped out the dish, giving Mab a share even though she had said she did not want any, the front door was heart to shut.
"Here comes Daddy!" cried Mab.
"Oh, I wonder if he brought anything?" said Hal, racing after his sister.
Daddy Blake did have a package in his arms, and he was smiling. He put the bundle down on the table and caught up first Mab and then Hal for a hearty kiss.
"Well, how are you all to-day?" he asked.
"I just baked a cake," answered Mab.
"And the dough went all over Roly-Poly, and I made believe he was a submarine ship in the bath tub," added Hal. "We had lots of fun."
"Before that we didn't thought," spoke Mab. "We wanted to play something new but we didn't know what. Did you bring us anything, Daddy?"
"Yes, I brought you and Hal a new game."
"A new game? Oh, goody! May we play it now?"
"Well, you can start to look at it now, but it takes quite a while to play it. It takes all Spring, all Summer and part of the Fall."
"Oh, what a long game!" cried Hal. "What is it?"
"It is called the Garden Game," said Daddy Blake, smiling. "And after supper I'll tell you all about it."
"The Garden Game," murmured Mab.
"It must be fun," said Hal, "else Daddy wouldn't laugh around his eyes the way he does."
"Yes, I think you'll like this new game," went on Mr. Blake. "And whoever learns to play it best will get a fine prize!"
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Hal and Mab in delight. They could hardly wait to find out all about it.
CHAPTER II
MAKING A GARDEN
"Now children," began Daddy Blake, as the table was cleared of the dishes, when supper had been finished, "I'll start to tell you about the garden game we are going to play."
"Oh, are YOU going to play it, too?" asked Hal in delight "Won't that be fun, Mab?"
"Lots of fun!"
Anything Daddy Blake did was fun for Hal and Mab, whether it was playing a game, or taking them somewhere.
Eagerly the two children watched while their father opened the package he had brought up from down town when he came home to supper.
"Is it some kind of a puzzle?" Hal wanted to know.
"Does it go around with wheels?" asked Mab, as she heard something rattle inside the paper.
"How many can play it?" asked Hal.
"Oh, as many as care to" answered Daddy Blake. I'm going to play it, and so is your mother, I think; and Uncle Pennywait, and Aunt Lollypop, and—no, I guess we can't let Roly-Poly play the garden game, but you two children can."
"Oh, it must be a fine game if so many can play," laughed Hal. "Hurry, Daddy, and show us what it is."
"Do you play sides?" Mab inquired.
"Yes, you can play sides," her father answered with a smile. "As I told you I'm going to give a prize to whoever plays the game best. I'll tell you about it. Now here's the first part of the garden," and, as Mr. Blake opened the paper fully, out rolled a small parcel. The string came off it, and Hal and Mab saw a lot of beans.
For a moment they looked very much disappointed.
"Oh, Daddy Blake!" cried Hal. "This isn't a new game at all! We've got a bean-bag one!"
"And we got tired of playing it to-day," went on Mab, in disappointed tones.
"This isn't exactly a bean-bag game," said Mr. Blake with a smile, "though you can make it one if you like. It's ever so much more fun than just bean-bags, for there are many other different parts to the garden game. Now if you'll sit down I'll tell you about it."
Hal and Mab saw some brightly colored pictures, among other things, in the big bag that had held the beans, and they thought perhaps they might have fun with the garden game after all.
Some of you have met Hal and Mab Blake before, on one or more of their many trips with Daddy, so I do not need to tell all of you about the children. But to those of you who read this book as the beginning of the Daddy Series I may say that the first volume is called "Daddy Takes Us Camping." In that I told you how Daddy and the two children went to live in a tent, and how they heard a queer noise in the night and—
Well, I'll leave the rest for you to find out by reading the book. Hal and Mab lived with Daddy and Mother Blake in a nice house in a small city, and with them lived Uncle Pennywait and Aunt Lollypop.
These were not their real names. Uncle Pennywait was called that because he so often said to Hal and Mab:
"Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny!"
Aunt Lollypop was more often called Aunt Lolly, and the reason she had such a queer name was because she was always telling the children to buy lollypops with the money Uncle Pennywait gave them. Lollypops, the children's aunt thought, were the best kind of candy for them, and perhaps she was right.
Then there was Roly-Poly, the funny little poodle dog, and once when Daddy Blake took Hal and Mab skating, as you may read in THAT book, Roly slid under the ice and was lost for a long, long time.
Hal and Mab just loved to go places with Daddy, to learn about the birds, trees and flowers. They had gone to the circus with him, had gone coasting, and had hunted birds with a camera to take pictures of them. There is a book about each one of the different trips Hal and Mab took with their father. They had many adventures each time they went out, and they learned many things.
Just before the story I am going to tell you now, Daddy Blake had taken the children to the woods, telling them about the different kinds of trees.
Sometimes Roly-Poly went along with Hal and Mab when Daddy started off with the children. Once Mab had a little cat that got lost up in a tree, and once her Dickey bird flew away and it was a long time before she found one she loved as much as her first singing pet.
"But I don't see how you are going to take us anywhere, so we can have fun, just with BEANS," said Hal, as he waited for his father to tell something about the new game.
"Oh, it isn't just beans," said Daddy Blake. "See here are some radishes, lettuce, carrots, turnips, potatoes, beets and—"
"Why it sounds just like a GARDEN!" cried Aunt Lollypop, coming in from the hall at that moment.
"It's a garden game, but we don't know how to play it yet," said Mab.
"That's what I'm going to teach you," spoke her father. "We are going to make a garden."
"Where?" Hal wanted to know.
"In our back yard and in the lot next door. I have hired that to use in planting our garden."
"How do you start to make a garden?" asked Hal.
"That's part of the game you and Mab must learn," said Mr. Blake. "Now I'll begin at the beginning and tell you. I think you will like this game as well as any you have ever played, for not only will it be fun, but it will give you work to do, and the best fun in the world is learning to make fun of your work. And don't forget the prize!"
"What's the prize for?" asked Hal.
"For the one who has the best little garden, whether it is Hal, Mab, Uncle Pennywait, Aunt Lolly, Mother or myself. We're all going to play the garden game!"
"What is the prize going to be?" asked Mab.
Daddy Blake thought for a moment. Then he said:
"Well, I suppose if YOU won the prize you would like it to be a nice doll."
"Oh, I'd just love it!" cried Mab with sparkling eyes.
"And Hal would want a pair of skates or maybe a sled, for I think his old one is broken," went on Daddy Blake.
"It is," answered Hal.
"So, as only one of us can win the prize, and as we would all want something different," spoke the children's father, "I think I'll make the prize a ten dollar gold piece, and whoever wins it can buy what they like with it."
"Oh, that's great!" exclaimed Hal.
"Ten dollars!" added Mab. "Why I could buy a lot of dolls for that!"
"I hope you wouldn't spend ALL that money for dolls," said Aunt Lolly.
"No, save some for candy!" laughed Uncle Pennywait. "I'll give you a penny extra as my prize."
"We'll talk about spending the money when the prize is won," said Daddy Blake. "Here it is," and he took from his pocket a bright, shining ten dollar gold piece. Hal and Mab looked at it.
"But everyone must work hard in the garden to win it," said Mr. Blake. "And, mind you! I may get my own prize, for I am going to work in the garden, too. We will each choose some one vegetable, and whoever raises the finest and best crop will get the prize."
"What made you think of this game for us?" asked Hal.
"Well, everyone is making gardens this year," said Daddy Blake. "You know we are at war, and in war time it is harder to get plenty of food than when we are at peace."
"Why?" asked Hal.
"Because so many men have to go to be soldiers," his father answered. "The farmers and gardeners—thousands of them—have been called away to fight the enemy, so that we, who never before helped to grow things from the earth, must begin now if we are to have enough to eat and to feed our soldiers.
"That is why I am going to have a garden—larger than we ever had before. That is why many others who never had gardens before are going to have one this year. All over vacant lots and play-fields, and even some beautiful green, grassy lawns, are being turned into gardens. They will take the places of many gardens that have been turned into battle fields. We must raise more vegetables and fruits and we must save what we raise."
"Why do we want to save it?" asked Hal, "Can't we eat it?"
"We will eat all we need," his father, "But you know that gardens and farms can only be planted, and fruits vegetables can only grow when the weather is warm. Nothing grows in the cold Winter. So we raise all we can in Summer and save what we need to eat when snow is on the ground."
"How are we going to make our garden?" asked Mab.
"And what am I going to plant?" asked Hal.
"Well, we'll begin at the very beginning," answered Daddy Blake. "The first part of any garden is getting the soil ready. That is the dirt, in which we plant the seeds, must be dug up and made soft and mellow so the seeds will grow."
"What makes seeds grow?" asked Mab.
"And why can't we plant 'em anywhere?" Hal wanted to know.
Daddy Blake laughed.
"You're going to have a lot of questions to answer about this garden game," said Uncle Pennywait. "You'll be kept busy."
"Yes, I guess so," agreed Daddy Blake. "Well I'll answer all the questions I can, for I want Hal and Mab to know how hard it is to make even one bean or radish grow from a seed. Then, when they find out that it is not easy to have good vegetables, when the bugs, worms and weeds are fighting against them, they will not waste. For waste is wicked not only in war time but always."
"Oh, Daddy!" cried Mab. "Do the worms and bugs and weeds fight the things in the garden?"
"Indeed they do," answered her father. "It is just like war all the while between the things we want to grow and the things we don't want."
"Oh, if the garden game is like war I'm going to have fun playing it!" exclaimed Hal, while Roly-Poly chased his tail around the table. I don't mean that the little poodle dog's tail came off and that he raced around trying to get hold of it again. No indeed! His tail just stayed on him, but he whirled around and around trying to get hold of it in his mouth, and he was having a good time doing it.
"There is one of the enemies you'll have to fight if you make a garden," said Daddy Blake with a smile.
"Who?" asked Hal.
"Your dog, Roly-Poly. Dogs, when they get in a newly planted garden, often dig up the seeds, just as chickens do. So from the start you'll have to keep Roly-Poly away."
"And chickens, too," said Mab. "They've got chickens next door."
"Yes, but they are kept shut up in their yard, with a wire fence around it," said Daddy Blake. "However you must keep watch. Now suppose we start and pick out what crops we want to raise for the prize of the ten dollar gold piece. I have different kinds of seeds here—corn, beans, tomatoes, radishes and others."
"I want to raise beans!" cried Mab. "Then I can have as many bean-bags as I want."
"We mustn't waste too many beans just for playing games, since beans make a good meal, especially for soldiers," said Daddy Blake. "And much of the food raised on farms and gardens will have to go to feed our soldiers. So we'll give Mab the first choice and let her raise beans. What will you choose, Hal?"
"Corn, I guess," Hal said. "I like pop corn."
"Well, we won't raise much pop corn," laughed his father. "While that is good to eat it is not good for making corn bread, and that is the kind we may have to eat if we can't raise enough wheat to make all the white bread we want."
"Why can't we raise wheat?" asked Hal.
"Well, we could grow a little, for it would grow in our garden as well as in any other soil or dirt," explained Daddy Blake. "But to raise a lot of wheat, or other grains, a big field is needed—a regular farm—and we haven't that."
"Will you take us to a farm some day?" asked Mab.
"Yes, after you learn how to make a garden," his father told him. "So you think you want to try corn; eh?" and he laid a package of that seed in front of the little boy.
"If Mab raises beans and Hal grows corn we'll have succotash at any rate," said Mother Blake. "And succotash is good to can and keep all Winter."
"Well, we may have enough to eat, after all, from our garden," said Aunt Lolly. "I think I'll raise pumpkins for my share of the new game."
"Then we can have Jack-o-lanterns!" laughed Hal. "That will be fun!"
"Now look here!" exclaimed; Daddy Blake. "I want you children to have some fun in your gardens, but is isn't ALL fun. There is going to be hard work, too, if anyone wins this prize," and he held up the ten dollar gold piece. "You may have one pumpkin for a Hallowe'en lantern, maybe, but pumpkin pies are what Aunt Lolly is thinking of, I guess."
"Indeed I am," she said. "When I was a girl we used to raise many pumpkins in the cornfield at home. So I'll raise my pumpkins between your rows of corn, Hal."
"That's the way to do it," said Uncle Pennywait.
"I think I'll raise potatoes. They're easy to grow if I can keep the bugs off them, and they'll keep all winter."
"I'll raise tomatoes," said Daddy Blake, taking out a package of tomato seeds for his part of the garden. "We can eat them sliced in Summer and have them canned, ready to stew, in Winter, I'll have to plant some seeds in the house first to raise plants that I may set them out when it is warm enough. Now, Mother, what will you grow in the garden?"
"Carrots," answered Mrs. Blake.
"Oh, then we can keep a bunny rabbit!" cried Mab. "I've always wanted a bunny."
"Well, a rabbit may be nice," said Daddy Blake. "But, as I said, this garden is not all for fun. We are going to raise as many vegetables as we can, so we will have them in the Winter to save buying them at the store. We can't afford to raise carrots for rabbits this year. There are your seeds, Mother," and he gave his wife a packet with a picture of yellow carrots on the outside.
"But there are a lot of seeds left," said Mab, as she looked at the large opened bundle on the table.
"Yes, well have to take turns planting these," her father said. "I just wanted you to pick out your prize crops first. Now we have made a start on our garden. The next thing is to get the ground ready as soon as it is warm enough. But first I think I'll start my tomato plants. I'll plant the seeds in the morning."
"Where?" asked Mab.
"In a box in the house. You may bring me in a little dirt and I'll let it dry out near the fire, for it is rather damp and cold yet in the garden."
The next day Hal and Mab brought in some dirt from the yard. It was wet and sticky but when it had been spread out on a paper under the stove it soon dried. That night Daddy Blake filled a big wooden box with the dirt, which he worked with a trowel until it was made fine and smooth.
"The first thing to learn in making a garden," the children's father said, "is to have your dirt made very fine, and to be sure that it is the right kind for what you are going to raise. Beans will grow in almost any kind of soil, but tomatoes and other vegetables must have soil which is called richer—that is it has more fertilizer in it—something which is food to the seeds and plants as bread, butter, meat and potatoes are food for us."
"Do plants eat?" asked Hal.
"Of course they do, just as I told you the trees did. Plants eat through their roots in the earth. They drink water that way, too, and through their leaves. And they breathe in the air and sunlight the same way. Plants, as well as boys and girls, need warm sun, enough water and good soil to make them grow."
"But why don't you plant the tomato seeds right in the garden?" asked Hal.
"Because it is a little too early. The weather is not warm enough and the ground is too damp. So I plant the seeds in the house and soon there will be many little tomato plants in this box, which, you children must see to it, must be kept in the sunny window, and not out in the cool air. When the plants are large enough we will take them from the box and put them in the garden in nice long rows. This is called transplanting, which means planting a second time, and is done with many garden things such as lettuce, cabbage and celery."
"But you didn't tell us what makes the seeds grow," said Mab, as she watched her father carefully smooth the soil in the box and then scatter in the tomato seeds, afterward covering them up with a piece of window glass.
"I'll tell you as best I can, though no one really knows what is in the seed to make it grow. Only Mother Nature knows that. But at least we have a start with our garden," said Daddy Blake, "and to-morrow I'll tell you, as well as I can, why a seed grows. It is time to go to bed now."
As Hal and Mab started up stairs, thinking what a wonderful thing it was to have a garden, there came a ring at the front door.
"My! Who can be calling this time of night?" asked Mother Blake, in surprise.
Hal and Mab wondered too.