After this incident the hose was mended and Natalie soon had her young vegetables well watered and left to the mercy of the sun that day. No one at Green Hill Farm knew enough to advise her not to water the plants while the sun was shining upon them, and Natalie fondly fancied she had done a good thing.
Norma sprinkled her flowers well when Natalie had done with the hose, but the flower beds were sheltered from the noonday sun, so they did not fare as badly as did the vegetables.
Sam was in the barnyard helping Janet construct a new shed for the calf which she wanted to buy the next week, and he was not so well versed in farm-lore, so Natalie never understood why all her tender seedlings should wilt so quickly and seem to dry away before the afternoon heat.
The tomato plants, that had been transplanted from Mr. Ames’s farm, had grown wonderfully well, and were large enough to warrant Natalie’s starting the frames which would be needed when the red fruit appeared on the vines. So she planned how to make the best kind of square frame for them, as she loosened the soil about the potato plants that morning.
Her thoughts were so filled with the vision of the lath frames that she failed to see something crawling on a tiny leaf of the potato vine where she was hoeing. When her eye was attracted to the movement, she gave a slight shudder and screamed.
“Wat’s d’ matter now?” called Rachel from the kitchen steps.
“Ooh! A horrid bug on one of my dear little potato vines!” cried Natalie, standing still to watch the crawling beetle.
Rachel hurried over to the garden. “Da’s onny a tater-bug, Honey. Ain’t chew ever hear tell of tater-bugs? Ef you’se let ’em go, dey will eat up all your taters in no time.”
As she explained, Rachel took the Colorado beetle between her fat thumb and forefinger and soon crushed it. Natalie shivered as she watched the remains flung away, but Rachel meant business and had no time for dainty shudderings.
In a few minutes she had turned over other tiny leaves and revealed many bugs eating away at the juicy food. These were quickly caught and killed, but a few of them managed to get away by flying up out of Rachel’s reach.