“I wish we could drive Mrs. Tompkins home and let her choose a site for our bee-hives,” ventured Natalie.
“Could you come with us, Mrs. Tompkins?” asked Mrs. James.
“I can manage to get away from home for an hour, but no longer, girls. If Frances can bring me back again, I’ll go with you,” replied the obliging lady.
All the way back to Green Hill, Janet squirmed and scratched her neck and bare arms until the skin was raw. Mrs. Tompkins asked Mrs. James about it
“Do you s’pose Janet got poison ivy on her and the rash is just showing?” asked she.
“I hadn’t thought of poison ivy,” returned Mrs. James, “but it is something. And the poor child is wretched. What can be done for her?”
“Whatever it is, a little baking soda in water will cool her burning skin and leave her comfortable for a time. But she will have to keep on using it for any continued ease.”
Arrived at the house, Rachel was told to give Janet the baking soda, and then Janet went upstairs to dab herself with the wash while Mrs. Tompkins led all the other girls about the gardens seeking the place for the bees to live. The place the girls had selected proved to be the best and most practical. When they were coming back from the field-fence, Janet met them and went with them while Natalie’s vegetables were visited.
The garden scout had been telling Mrs. Tompkins how hard she had worked that morning to kill the potato bugs, and when that lady saw the plants she gasped, “Why Natalie, what did you do?”
“They look queer, don’t they? They were not so when I left them this morning.”