With their hoes the children piled more dirt around the roots of the garden plants where the rain had washed the soil away, and thus the bushes and stalks were helped to stand up straighter. Some straightened up of themselves when they had dried in the sun.
"Well, I think we are going to have some good crops," said Daddy Blake when he went to the garden with Hal and Mab a few days after the storm. "In fact we are going to have more of some things than we can use."
"Will we have to throw them away?" asked Hal.
"No indeed!" laughed his father. "That would be wrong at a time when we must save all the food we can. But we will do as the farmer does who raises a large crop of anything. We will start a little store and sell what we do not need."
"A REAL store?" cried Mab, with shining eyes.
"And sell things for REAL money?" asked Hal.
"Of course!" laughed their father, "though you may give your friends anything from your garden that you wish to."
"Where will we keep the store?" asked Hal. "And who will we sell the things to?"
"And what will we sell?" asked Mab. "What have we too much of, Daddy?"
"My! You children certainly can ask questions!" exclaimed Mr. Blake.