[CHAPTER LVIII]
Some Hints on Growing Vegetables
MARY FRANCES repeated to Eleanor some of the lessons which Billy had given her on growing vegetables.
She had a little book in which she had taken notes.
“Billy told me,” she said, “that when he was little, he used to wonder why things wouldn’t grow if they were just ‘stuck down’ in the ground. You see, he didn’t know that the making of the beds was the most important matter of all.”
“Why, I’ve heard people say that anything would grow if planted by certain people—that they ‘had luck,’” Eleanor stated.
“If you had watched those very people,” Mary Frances replied wisely, “you would probably have seen that they loosened up the soil before they ‘stuck’ the plant down.”
“I imagine that’s true,” agreed Eleanor.
“Well,” Mary Frances continued, opening her book, “as you know, in getting the outdoor beds ready, you—