The children followed the Scotchman as he left the egg-plant, and walked amid the rustling corn, and gathered the green ears.
“I feel as if I were in the cool woods, when I get here,” said Sally.
The tall plants were high above her head, and the broad leaves shaded her delightfully, and she liked to hear the crisp sound as Gill and Ben broke the ears from their stalks.
“I put the little grains into the hillocks myself, remember, Gill,” said the child.
“Yes, indeed, you were a great help to me, for I could cover it with my hoe as you dropped the corn, and we got on very fast indeed.”
“Don’t you know how we came out here every day, brother, to see if the grains had sprouted?”
“Yes.”
“And how pleased we were when the first tiny blade came through the earth?”
“Yes,” said Ben, “and we wondered how it could have strength enough to push off the brown coverlet and put its head out of bed.”
“After it saw the light it shot up fast enough,” said Gill, “and it put forth leaf after leaf, and now here we are in this great forest, we who stood upon the bare ground dropping the tiny kernels, and shutting them up in their prison houses,—oh, it is wonderful! so wonderful!” Gill lifted his hat reverently as he said this, and looked up to heaven, in grateful recognition of the Almighty Friend who maketh all things to grow for the use of man.